Baltimore Area Expecting A Slight Increase In Hiring
9/15/2009

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According to the latest survey completed by Robert Half International, there will be a recognizable increase in the hiring of finance and accounting professionals for the final quarter in the Baltimore area.  The survey was conducted including 200 of Baltimore’s chief financial officers finding that even though 84% of them were planning to make no changes whatsoever for the last three months, 8% of those financial officers were intending to hire in the months of October thru December.  Though 8% may seem to be rather small in number, it is still an increase from the 6% seen in the last quarter of 2008.

As with any hiring notification, Financejobz.com will inform it’s viewers of any perspective lay-offs as well.  We found that 6% of the CFO’s questioned in the survey were intending to decrease hiring for the final quarter of the year; also an improvement from the 9% we saw in the final quarter of 2008.  John Owen, a branch manager for Robert Half’s Baltimore office, stated that, “companies often reduce staff in the first six months of the year,” and went further in saying, “they’re recognizing that skilled financial professionals are crucial in managing their business.”  He fully expects the hiring of full-time financial and accounting professionals to improve, but believes many of those hiring’s will be based on a project basis to cover for workers who have been laid off.  He also supposes that due to the Base Realignment and Closure commission expansions at Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort George G. Meade, many of the local financial companies are preparing for the possible business opportunities that may arise.

Even though the numbers look promising from the survey, it seems that some of the local financial and accounting businesses aren’t taking steps in preparing for a final quarter hiring.  R. Neal Black, C.E.O. of Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. stated, “We didn’t have any layoffs, but we also don’t have any plans for hiring [in the accounting and finance].”  And Jean Stern, owner of Mainstream Recruiting, said that they are now just seeing an improvement after a slowdown that ended earlier this year with layoffs and hiring freezes.

Stern, who recruits financial professionals for firms and the private industry, stated that the market is not what it was 2 years ago, with candidates receiving multiple offers and sign-on bonuses.  She said with each new job opening, she receives 100 resumes with laid off finance executives willing to take a cut in pay in order to get a job.

The Robert Half Survey definitely shows some promising prospects for the last quarter.  With competition being at its greatest, keep your head high, and remember you may have to compromise.