Employment in the financial services sector "boomed" this year, according to Frank Collins, president of the National Recruitment Federation. Recruiters placed about 10,000 jobs in the sector in 2005, up from 8,000 last year, and there are still about 1,000 vacancies in the sector, Mr Collins said.
Foreign financial services companies, led by hedge fund administrators, ranked as one of the biggest new employers in Ireland this year. About 30 per cent of hedge funds worldwide are now administrated in Ireland, according to Ronan Daly, the president of BISYS Hedge Fund Services, which in August set up an operation in Waterford. The new BISYS business will create about 250 jobs in the city over the next five years. PFPC International Ltd, a unit of PNC Financial Services Group, announced the second-highest number of new jobs this year. PFPC, which administers assets worth $65 billion (€54 billion), will create almost 500 jobs by expanding its fund administration operations in Navan and Waterford in the next five years.
Insurer Axa Assistance SA said in September it would create 300 jobs in Ireland by setting up a customer support centre in Athlone. The centre will be the second Irish operation for the Paris-based Axa Group. Axa Insurance Ireland Ltd employs about 900 people here.
