Too few jobs is biggest risk, say Jersey Finance

Too few jobs is biggest risk, say Jersey Finance

The half-yearly Jersey Labour Market report showed that jobs in the finance sector last year increased by 230, bringing total employment in the industry to a nine-year high. That helped overall employment in the Island to increase to just 50 short of 60,000 jobs, the highest December figure ever recorded.

With 22% of workers employed directly in finance producing more than half the Island’s income, trends in finance will have a significant impact on the whole economy, and the Labour Market statistics show how finance is changing direction. Another 50 jobs were lost in banking last year, but the number of jobs in trust and company administration reached a new high. This reflects ‘up skilling’ in the finance sector, which now depends much more on complex financial services requiring higher-skilled staff, some of them imported.

There is also now an increased emphasis on the Island having to prove to other countries that its financial services have ‘substance’ and that may require more staff on the ground in Jersey.

A recent survey of Jersey Finance members found they were expecting to create 800 new jobs over the next five years, 83% of which will be filled by local residents. That means 136 will still have to be imported, but that is only 27 new immigrants a year and does not take into account those leaving the Island.

The pressure for more staff, however, will be eased by the growth in artificial intelligence and robotics, which experts say could replace 60% of ‘process orientated’ jobs. That is at least partly to blame for the steady fall in banking jobs since the financial crisis.

Jersey Finance’s Geoff Cook said that their reviews have identified these trends and the industry believes the number of jobs will remain stable in the future as they work hard to grow jobs in other areas.

‘The industry has gone up the value chain and we now have more complex and high-value jobs,’ Mr Cook said. ‘What that does is raise our “ticket size” and our value, and we don’t need lots and lots more people, we need fewer but more highly trained people.’

That is why Mr Cook believes that the biggest challenge facing the Island is not too much growth and too many people. The biggest risk is whether we will have too few jobs locally, he said.

‘That’s why we’re trying to be an early adopter of technology to improve productivity and profitability and therefore our tax contribution and our competitiveness,’ Mr Cook said.

‘We’ve also worked hard on local skills and on degrees in the Island and courses in IT, law and other subjects. But I still don’t think we’re good enough. I still feel that we benchmark ourselves too much against the UK, when we should be benchmarking with Switzerland, Singapore and places like that. They are our real competitors and their education standards are higher than the UK’s.’

Jersey Finance is now working very closely with Digital Jersey on four major work streams, covering Brexit (where there is a raft of new practical initiatives), Digital Strategy, Growth Markets, and Communications.

These could all be of great benefit to the economy, particularly because of the high value the financial services industry can bring in each area.

‘I think you will see it pick up pace now,’ Mr Cook said.

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