The image of the financial sector has already suffered greatly in recent years, according to a press release from the communications agency Communicators. A total of 44.9 percent of respondents believe that the prestige of banking and insurance professions will continue to decline over the next five years, and 8.3 percent of respondents even expect a "drastic" decline. In their overall assessment, 53.8 percent of respondents rated career prospects as "mediocre" and 15.6 percent advised against working in the financial sector. Only just 2.1 percent of respondents rated the prospects as "very good". For 28.6 percent, they are still "intact".
In line with this, 42.1 percent of respondents expect fixed salaries to fall, with 12.9 percent even anticipating significant declines. This assessment is even clearer for bonuses, where a total of 77.1 percent of survey participants expect a decline.
Non-value-adding areas on the rise
Investment banking and the back office in particular will offer the fewest career opportunities in the future, according to 70.0% and 47.3% of respondents respectively. In contrast, Legal & Compliance (71.7 percent), IT (48.1 percent) and Private Banking/Wealth Management (40.9 percent) will offer greater career opportunities in the next five years. With the exception of asset management, non-value-adding areas of activity therefore offer the greatest career opportunities.
The skepticism with which employees view their own profession is also reflected in the fact that 43.7% of respondents would only "maybe" enter the world of finance again. And 35.6 percent of survey participants even categorically advise school and university leavers against working for banks and insurance companies.
One in five employees did not receive a bonus
There is also disillusionment when it comes to salaries. Last year, 22.6 percent of employees did not receive a bonus and 25.7 percent received a bonus that was 20 percent lower than the previous year. Only 17.3 percent received a higher bonus. For 68.7 percent of survey participants, the bonus accounted for between 1 and 25 percent of their fixed annual salary.
Fewer jobs in five years
More than three quarters of all respondents (78.9 percent) expect that there will be fewer jobs in the Swiss financial sector in five years' time. In the future, specialized financial expertise (62.9 percent of responses), social skills (55.4 percent) and sound language skills such as English, French, Spanish and Italian (54.4 percent) will be increasingly in demand for entry-level positions. Ongoing training and networking skills (52.5 percent each) will also gain in importance.
Specialist training in demand
Military officer training is hardly in demand any more (3.8 percent); social media skills are also surprisingly low on the list (16.3 percent). According to the survey, specialist training in particular will become more important for the increased specialist knowledge that finance professionals need to acquire. These include additional training such as CFA or federal diplomas (49.4 percent) as well as degrees (MAS, CAS, DAS) in the areas of banking & finance (48.3 percent) and compliance management/controlling (44.2 percent). University degrees such as law (45.6 percent), business administration (44.6 percent) and IT (37.3 percent) continue to be very popular. The preferred training elements underpin the fact that non-value-adding areas such as Legal & Compliance and IT offer the greatest career opportunities.
Information about the survey
Participants: 520
Gender: 87 percent men, 13 percent women
Age:
19.3 percent 20-30 years
48.9 percent 30-45 years
28.7 percent 45-60 years
3.1 percent over 60 years
The survey is to be repeated annually.