eFinancialCareers

Forget i-banking job cuts, fund managers are defiantly bullish on hiring: most are planning to add staff.

The latest financial services quarterly survey from the CBI and Pricewaterhouse- Coopers says a balance of 73% of fund management firms are looking to recruit over the next three months, a figure only slightly down from the 80% for the previous quarter when the sub-prime crisis was a mere dot on the horizon.

Asset management headhunters confirm hiring has a rosy hue. Chris Manfield, head of European asset management at search firm Whitney Group, says: “On the product side, it’s only in fixed income that hiring seems to be affected. Other areas, like equities, real estate and emerging markets are still very strong.”

Liquidity fund managers are also said to be popular, as are marketers, who can win new assets from increasingly recalcitrant investors.

With recruitment still bullish, fund management firms – particularly those integrated with investment banks – may have problems retaining existing staff. Research by Citywire suggests the average tenure for fund managers is just two and a half years. One headhunter says ailing banking profits following write-downs on leveraged loans and sub-prime products are making managers at integrated firms fearful for their bonuses, and more inclined to shift to independent boutiques as a result.