Data Professionals Still in Demand

New York - While firms continue to announce cuts to reduce costs, the data management industry still appears to be in good health compared with some other areas of the financial industry, officials tell Inside Reference Data.

Toronto-based Dale Richards, chief executive officer of technology and consultancy firm LakeFront, who launched a job site in November, says there is a focus on data architects and business analysts in the recruitment sector now and, on the vendor side, there is still demand for more enterprise data management platform and data content sales professionals.

In fact, two weeks after the launch of the job site LakeFront expected to have around 40 job openings advertised online. "The opportunities are showing up in lots of different places, not the usual ones, but in the buy side, in other countries and in different segments of the market-place," says Richards.

New York-based Don Chadwick, a recruitment consultant covering data management, says he had four data openings in mid-November, but the number is changing every week due to budget constraints. "There seems to be demand, as I am hearing groups are overwhelmed with work," he says.

Chadwick, who is "getting more optimistic," expects the first quarter of 2009 to be good and anticipates more activity in the data space as a result of post-merger integration projects. "I'm not overwhelmed with resumes and I'm not seeing a lot of data people being laid off," he says.

But there is a growing interest in the job market. The theme for the FISD women's lunch in London in December was "The Job Market - Now and in the Future" and recruitment is becoming a recurring topic at industry events.

Richards says the LakeFront website had more than 1,000 visitors in its first week and 100 users registered. Eight people applied for a job and two of those were shortlisted for positions. "There seem to be just as many firms out there looking to develop good data management programs," he says.

This was, in fact, also why LakeFront decided to launch the site. Its consultancy engagements often resulted in recommendations on how to structure the data organization, and "it became clear that it was difficult to find the people to fill those jobs."

With the new site, users can create one or multiple anonymous profiles, choosing between hundreds of different skills in the system, such as knowledge about specific data-related products and systems. "We expect to have 7,000 people on the database when the site is fully up and running," he says.

It is free for users to register on the website and apply for jobs, which is done using a system that does not reveal the name of the applicant. Before the end of the year, it is free for companies to post jobs too. Companies that post jobs before the end of the year will also receive free access to the website next year.

Industry association the EDM Council has endorsed the job site. Washington, DC-based Mike Atkin, managing director of the group, says he expects the site to be very useful as it is the first job site to target "our unique industry."