Connecticut’s financial services sector posted more job openings in the fourth quarter of 2010 than it did a year earlier, but job growth in one of the state’s key industries continues to decline.
Financial companies in the state, including insurers and banks, posted 1,478 job openings during the fourth quarter of 2010, a double-digit increase from the year ago period, according to an occupational outlook report recently published by the Connecticut Insurance & Financial Services (IFS) Cluster, in partnership with SkillPROOF Inc.
The study monitors and reports on the hiring demands of 49 insurance, banking and financial services companies in Connecticut by tracking job postings via their Internet websites.
The financial services sector had the highest gains in job postings, with 402 listings in the fourth quarter, an 84 percent increase from a year ago. Insurers posted the second biggest jump in postings of 34 percent with 654 postings. Banks posted 422 job openings during the fourth quarter.
But, those increased postings didn’t stop a retrenchment of jobs in the industry in 2010, a troubling trend that has been continuing on for years.
While the financial services sector added 300 jobs in December, the industry lost 1,700 jobs, or 1.2 percent of its workforce over the course of last year.
And the sector has shed 11,300 jobs since January 2007, according to the state Department of Labor.
Despite the declines, however, industry officials remain optimistic. But they also said the business climate needs to improve if the state is going to bring back financial jobs that left during the recession.
“We still have some very strong sectors within the insurance and financial services sector,” said Susan Winkler, the executive director of the Connecticut IFS Cluster. “But we also need to make laws that are conducive to business.”
Winkler said Connecticut remains the insurance capital of the world and needs to promote other growing financial industries like hedge funds, which have flourished in Fairfield County.
And despite the job losses last year, the news wasn’t all bad, Winkler said. In five out of the 12 months in 2010, for example, the financial services sector in the state actually added jobs.
And 47 percent of IFS companies forecast an increase in hiring in the next six months.
“We have seen hiccups in employment but there is an optimism that jobs are increasing within the industry,” Winkler said.
Some jobs appear to be in more demand than others.
Among the top occupations tracked by SkillPROOF, the demand for underwriters and accountants tripled in a year-to-year comparison. Job requests for business and financial analysts and actuaries also remained strong.
Winkler said increased demand for accounting and underwriting jobs could be a result of the federal health care and financial reform laws, which are requiring insurers and other financial institutions to adapt to hundreds of new regulations.
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Salisbury posts gains
Lakeville-based Salisbury Bancorp reported a 53 percent increase in fourth quarter profits, spurred by double-digit growth in non-interest income and lower operating expenses.
The parent company to Salisbury Bank said its net income available to common shareholders for the quarter ended Dec. 31, was $1.1 million, or 67 cents per common share, compared to $734,000, or 43 cents per common share, in the year ago period.
“We are pleased with our fourth quarter earnings improvement, reflecting top line revenue growth and lower operating expenses,” said Richard J. Cantele Jr., president and CEO of Salisbury Bancorp. “The improved earnings are reflective of the solid growth of our core business, primarily loans, deposits, and assets under management in our wealth advisory area, as well as the installation of rigorous expense controls.”
Salisbury Bank, with $575 million in assets, also increased its depositor base to $430 million from $418 million a year earlier.
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Eagle flies in Southington
East Hartford-based American Eagle Federal Credit Union has opened a new full-service banking office in Southington.
The 2,400-square-foot facility, located at 888 Queen St., is the credit union’s 10th community banking facility in Connecticut and features teller, new account, and investment services areas, as well as a coin-counting machine, two drive-thru lanes and a 24-hour drive-up ATM.
The Southington office will have five employees. It will be managed by Jaimie Polanski, a 13-year employee who most recently was branch manager of the Credit Union’s Glastonbury office.
Greg Bordonaro writes the Financial Sense column every other week. Reach him at gbordonaro@HartfordBusiness.com.
