Is the finance industry permanently losing the jobs or is it just a temporary situtation due to recession? In my country, many well-qualified people has problems finding jobs now
“Permanent” is a pretty strong word. Who knows how many people will work in finance (or what bubbles will be growing) 30 years from now. For the next 5 years, it looks pretty sucks though. Even if the economy gets better, regulations will probably make many kinds of businesses unprofitable.
Of course, if you are looking to get into compliance or legal, the future might be somewhat bright.
yes, investment management is becoming more efficient and standardized. it depends on the product/fund whatever but today 1 guy is doing the job of 2-3 finance guys 10-20 years ago. even back office work is becoming less people intensive, accounting systems / ERP are reducing the need for head count.
Saw a good article on how a lot of support back office jobs will be moved into ultra cheap cities. Makes total sense actually.
Apparently, GS has a bug Utah office now. Some banks have already moved BO to India. Sometimes, when I have trade breaks, some random Indian guy emails me.
Deutsche Bank opened a large office in Jacksonville, FL recently (in the past couple of years) in part to get people out of the NY metro area. I know a couple of people from school who got jobs based there.
Not just banks, actually. Law firms are also moving people to the Midwest to avoid East/West Coast salary. Actually, it’s hard to imagine why these jobs must be on the coasts now that there is instant chat, video conferencing, email, etc. Sure, the best talent is still attracted to a few cities at the moment, but that might change over the next 20 years.
GS has had their Utah branch for years , it’s just grown a lot more lately
You just don’t need back office peeps in an expensive location. They don’t need to physically visit the bankers/PM’s/traders anyway,
Saving $20k-30k PER person is no joke.
Agree with ohai. I have negotiated working from home one day a week and am loving it. Given that I travel a bit, I’m probalby in the office 2-3 days a week on average. This, compared to 5 or 6 years ago when I *had* to be in the office. I really think pretty soon thing are going to be much more remote to save on RE (and I work for a company that leases ridiculous RE in mid town). I would welcome this…conference calls from my beachside villa in baja sound sweet.