Like most other areas of the financial services community, investment professionals have been hit by redundancies and the downturn in hiring, but there are signs that things are looking up.

Of 505 of our CFA UK members who responded to a survey in October, 58% said they expect next year’s employment conditions to improve a little and 15% said they expect them to improve significantly.

Only 11% thought they’d get significantly worse.

Risk managers are expected to face the most favourable employment conditions in 2010. 23% of respondents picked the risk manager’s role as one of the three most likely to be most in demand in the next 12 months. With 8.1% of the votes, investment consultants are also thought likely to be popular. Retail financial advisers, multi-managers and brokers are not expected to be strongly in demand.

In product terms, specialists in core areas – such as equity and fixed income – are expected to find jobs more easily in 2010, though commodities specialists are also expected to be sought after. Alternative asset classes such as private equity and property are not anticipated to see such favourable conditions. Structured products and venture capital received the lowest ratings of all among the sectors.

The survey results suggest a welcome return to optimism among our members. Our own contact with employers suggests there’s already reasonable hiring demand in pockets of the investment community. However, employers are being very choosy about who they recruit. Until demand outweighs supply, this is unlikely to change.

One final piece of good news that suggests that the situation is improving. We recently cancelled one of our scheduled careers events due to lack of sufficient interest. The event’s title was ‘Working with your outplacement agent’. Perhaps the worst is now really behind us.