Job cuts within the financial services industry are set to subside as organisations look to more flexible work practices to keep their employees, according to CommSec's chief economist Craig James.
"I think the management of any company, whether it's a bank or retailer, the last thing anybody wants to do is to lose good staff and then six months later have to try and rehire them," he told InvestorDaily.
"If you let staff go now, you may in 12 months' time have to be competing with everyone else to be able to get that staff back again, so skilled staff are very much in big demand.
"Now I do know, anecdotally, that one of the major investment banks here in Australia is out there trying to get back some of the staff that they let go of earlier in the year."
Anecdotal evidence also suggests that recruitment companies have seen somewhat of an upsurge in terms of demand for financial services staff in the past month, James said.
Financial institutions are now open to implementing more flexible labour practices, such as job sharing, trimming hours and reducing pay, which would prevent the unemployment rate hitting the highs reached in past downturns, James said.
"Certainly in terms of our institution, the chief executive has taken a pay cut, the board of directors have, rank-and-file staff are going to get very modest wage increases over the next 12 months; those up to $100,000 are only going to get a pay increase of 1.5 per cent, and those above $100,000 will get nothing," he said.
