At a glance:



It’s been a steady start to the year with regards to Accounting & Finance recruitment in Cayman, with a fairly regular flow of both temporary (*30%) and permanent (*70%) opportunities. Some sectors have been particularly quiet; specifically Banking (*6%), Insolvency (*4%) and Captive Insurance (*4%). As in Q4 2011, Funds (*33%) has been the busiest sector, and the ‘highest climber’ has been Trusts (*20%),  which only accounted for 4% of recruitment volume in Q4 2011.

January was mainly occupied by trying to find suitable candidates for legacy permanent positions carried over from 2011, as well as responding to the last minute year end needs of our clients, who were seeking temporary staff to assist with their seasonal spike in workload. There was a flurry of new permanent positions released in the last few days of January, which affected the overall figures slightly, but the stats are that 57% of the roles we dealt with were from clients seeking temporary staff, and 43% were looking for people on a permanent basis. Overall, and in keeping with the common seasonal trend, January was the quietest month accounting for only 23% of total recruitment volume in the first quarter of 2012.

As we moved in to February, we saw ever increasing requests for permanent staff, particularly within the Trust industry. Overall, 82% of positions released were focused on finding permanent hires.

March has been marginally the busiest month in Q1 2012 (*40%), and again followed the ‘business as usual’ trend with clients mainly seeking permanent (*75%) staff.

Analysis by sector:

Funds – *33%, Trust – *20%, General Industries – *13%, Audit – *10%, Structured Finance – *6%, Banking – *6%, Insolvency – *4%, Captive Insurance – *4%, and Asset Management – *4%

Analysis by job title:

Fund Accountant – *20%, Trust Accountant *16%, Directorships/Fiduciary Services – *13%, Financial Controller/Accountant – *11%, Client/Investment Accountant – *11%,  Auditor – *11%, Internal Auditor – *6%, Relationship Manager – *3%, Captive Accountant – *3%, Portfolio Manager – *3%, and Insolvency Accountant – *3%.

Outlook for Q2 2012:

We are currently dealing with a number of vacancies in Cayman, both permanent and temporary, across most of the common sectors, and expect Q2 to be as busy as, if not slightly busier than Q1. We are finding that there is a slightly lower than usual demand for expats looking to relocate to Cayman (the Audit sector being the exception to the rule), but we expect this to change in the 2nd half of the year, which is traditionally the busiest in terms of recruitment volumes in Cayman.

Applications are still open for the Sept/Oct 2012 Audit Senior intake, with opportunities existing in Cayman, Bermuda and BVI.  We urge you to get in touch as soon as possible though as most of the Audit firms organise their staffing requirements well in advance.

We’re always interested in hearing from qualified accountants seeking temporary opportunities in Cayman, so please keep these applications coming in.

*Percentage of total recruitment across Accounting & Finance in Cayman