Temporary tax jobs - market update - Autumn 2010

The interim market has improved exponentially leading up to the end of the third quarter of 2010. In our last market update, we reported that we had placed 40 tax professionals into temporary and contract roles (between January and May 2010). In the three months to August this year, the interim team has made a total of 46 placements in this quarter alone.

Whilst VAT and transfer pricing continue to remain buoyant areas for interim tax professionals, we have also witnessed an increase in demand for expatriate tax, employment tax and global mobility candidates over recent months. Interestingly, of the 46 placements made in the last quarter, 21 were for corporation tax focused roles, an area in which had previously seen a significant decline throughout the economic downturn.

Financial services and consumer services continue to be the highest performing sectors for interim tax recruitment. Other improving sectors for tax interims appear to be oil and gas and the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG).

It appears that antipodean candidates are once again beginning to move to London in search of tax careers. We have successfully assisted a number of chartered qualified (Australia and New Zealand), Big 4 trained tax professionals to find in-house temporary tax positions, these candidates often having no previous UK tax experience. This is also indicative of the fact that UK qualified candidates have become more in demand for permanent roles, giving greater opportunities for candidates without UK experience to undertake temporary roles.

We predict that it will be a busy end to the year with more activity expected within the commercial sector.