Under the tide of salary cuts, the attractiveness of the securities industry is still there? Brokers fell below 40,000, investment advisory growth slowed, and analysts still enjoyed it

Under the dual background of "salary cuts" and "employment difficulties", whether the domestic securities industry is still as attractive as in the past has attracted much attention from the market.

As of September 22, there were 353,800 employees in securities companies this year, an improvement over the end of the first half of this year. It is reported that in the first half of this year, the number of people in the industry once decreased by more than 4,000 to 349,700, mainly due to the loss of securities brokers. However, the current overall data is still less than the 354,300 at the end of last year, and the net outflow of personnel from the whole industry is obvious.

From the perspective of the type and structure of securities practitioners, the number of securities brokers has fallen below 40,000. It is reported that at the end of the third quarter of last year, it was 48,000, that is, securities brokers have decreased by 10,000 in less than a year; the number of investment advisers has further increased, indicating that investment advisory positions are still expanding. However, according to the statistics of brokerage China reporter, the growth rate of investment advisers has slowed down significantly.

The number of analysts and sponsor representatives have both reached a new threshold this year, exceeding 4,000 and 8,000 respectively.

Big brokers are still getting in

As the third quarter comes to an end, the flow of personnel of securities companies has a relatively clear picture since the beginning of this year.

According to the statistics of the China Securities Association by the China Securities Reporter, as of September 22, a total of 6 securities firms had more than 10,000 employees.

CITIC Securities had the largest number of people, reaching 15,700. In the first half of the year, after facing the loss of personnel, the leading brokerage maintained a strong rhythm of entry. According to the statistics of Oriental Wealth Choice data by brokerage China reporters, CITIC Securities has increased its workforce by 967 people this year. The company mainly increased its staff in the "general securities business" and "investment advisory".

There are also top securities companies that continue to recruit, but still face a situation of reduced personnel. As of September 22, CSC Securities had a total of 12,200 employees, a decrease of 140 from the beginning of the year. However, CSCI ranked second in the industry with 12,200 employees, only 03,500 fewer than CITIC Securities.

GF Securities, Guotai Junan Securities, Guosen Securities and Galaxy Securities ranked third to sixth with 11,900, 11,800, 11,400 and 10,800 respectively.

From the perspective of the increase or decrease in the personnel of large securities firms, Galaxy Securities has increased its staff by 655 since the beginning of this year, ranking second in terms of the scale of staff increase; Huatai Securities has increased its workforce by 408 this year; CICC and CICC Wealth Securities have added a total of 405 employees this year. The above-mentioned brokerage job increase is close to that of CITIC Securities.

In contrast, as of September 22, Founder Securities has lost 420 people this year, mainly from securities brokers (359 staff reduction). The company previously stated that these securities brokers and Founder Securities are cooperative relations, not labor relations, and the reduction of securities brokers is a strategic consideration for securities companies to actively adjust their business strategies.

Brokerage China reporters noted that in addition to Founder Securities, China Merchants Securities, First Capital Securities, China Merchants Securities, Changjiang Securities, Tianfeng Securities, Zhongtai Securities, Guohai Securities, etc. have all significantly reduced their staff in securities brokers, resulting in a significant reduction in the total number of employees of corresponding securities firms.

Data show that as of September 22, Zhongtai Securities, China Merchants Securities and Tianfeng Securities have reduced their workforce by 343, 339 and 317 in turn; First Capital Securities, Changjiang Securities and Guohai Securities have all reduced their workforce by more than 200 this year.

According to a previous survey by a brokerage China reporter, many securities firms have "advanced" the progress of campus recruitment in 2024 to before the summer, and locked talents in advance through summer internship recommendation and retention. On the whole, this year, all securities companies have taken the lead in the scale of recruitment, and the recruitment intensity has developed steadily compared with previous years, and some small and medium-sized securities companies have shown a trend of expansion; However, there are also individual brokerages who have reduced their recruitment. (See "Autumn Moves Begin!") Securities firms are still hot job seekers, and the demand for these two business positions is only increasing, and some investment banks are shrinking recruitment")

Growth in the number of advisors slowed

With the deepening of the wealth management transformation of domestic securities firms, the group of securities brokers continues to shrink, and the group of investment advisers further increases.

As of September 22, the number of domestic securities brokers has decreased to 39,976, falling below the 40,000 mark, a significant decrease of 12.85% compared with the end of last year (December 31, 2022, the same below).

Among them, there are 7 securities firms with more than 1,000 securities brokers, including 1690 Jiuzhou Securities, 1652 Founder Securities, 1508 Haitong Securities, 1440 Essence Securities, 1421 Guotai Junan Securities, 1287 Changjiang Securities and 1104 Everbright Securities.

The number of securities brokers in Federal Reserve Securities, Yingda Securities and Shengang Securities has increased this year, with double-digit increases in staff.

Under the background of accelerated wealth management transformation, securities firms have shown strong demand for wealth management talents.

In the case of investment advisers, for example, the total number of investment advisers is still climbing, from 73,500 at the end of last year to 76,300 (September 22 data). However, it is worth noting that the growth of the number of investment advisers has slowed significantly, compared with the 3% increase at the beginning of the year, the growth rate in 2022 is 7.6%, and the growth rate in 2021 is 12%.

A relevant person from the human resources department of a securities firm said that the demand for wealth management positions in his company in the fall of 2024 decreased slightly compared with the previous year, mainly because the increase in the number of employees recruited in the fall of 2023 was relatively abundant, coupled with the long training cycle of wealth management talents, which required a certain incubation period.

At present, a total of 2 securities firms have reached the 4,000 mark. Data show that as of September 22, GF Securities has a total of 4,387 investment advisors, and CITIC Securities has entered the "4,000-person club" this year with 4,187 new investors.

In addition, 5 securities firms have more than 3,000 investment advisors, namely Galaxy Securities 3,734, Guosen Securities 3,636, Guotai Junan Securities 3,616, CSC Securities 3,571 and Huatai Securities 3,175.

From the perspective of the increase in staff, CITIC Securities and CICC Wealth Securities have increased the number of investment advisers by more than 200 this year, with an increase of 286 and 264 respectively.

Some small and medium-sized securities firms have vigorously increased their wealth management business, with Guojin Securities increasing the number of investment advisors by 124 to 750 this year, Dongguan Securities by 95 investment advisors to 811, and Essence Securities by 81 investment advisors to 1575 people, ranking the top ten in terms of the scale of staff increase in these three small and medium-sized securities firms.

In contrast, Guoyuan Securities and Pacific Securities faced a large-scale loss of investment advisers, and the number of staff losses exceeded 100: Guoyuan Securities dropped from 1,016 at the beginning of the year to 874, and Pacific Securities dropped from 348 to 227.

A number of brokerage analysts increased the number of more than 20 people

This year, regulators began to carry out the reform of public fund fee reduction, and the business model of the institute faced unprecedented challenges, and some securities companies strengthened the assessment of analysts, and even eliminated them at the end. Nevertheless, the growth in the analyst base is still very significant compared to the change in investment advisors. As of September 22, the number of analysts totaled 4,538, breaking the 4,000 mark, an increase of 15.32% from 3,935 at the end of last year.

A total of 14 brokerages have registered analysts with more than 100 people. Among them, the largest number of analysts continues to be CICC, with 290 as of September 22. The brokerage continues to expand the number of analysts, adding 67 employees so far this year, far more than the latecomers.

CITIC Securities has 178 analysts, Guotai Junan Securities and Industrial Securities have 158 and 151 respectively, and Shenwan Hongyuan also has 143 analysts.

From the perspective of the increase in staff, in addition to CICC, analysts from Zheshang Securities, Huachuang Securities, Industrial Securities, Deppon Securities, Huatai Securities, Goldman Sachs Gaohua Securities and Huafu Securities have increased their staff by more than 20 this year, ranking high in terms of the scale of staff increase. It can be seen from the above brokerages that most of them are medium and large brokers, and the sell-side research has been cultivated for many years.

Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities was mainly due to business restructuring. Goldman Sachs Gaohua Securities said that in February this year, Beijing Gaohua Securities completed the migration of its original business, customer relationships, systems and personnel to Goldman Sachs Gaohua Securities. Correspondingly, the number of analysts at Beijing Gaohua Securities also decreased.

As of July this year, Huafu Securities Research Institute has a total of 24 research teams with more than 120 employees.

In terms of attrition, Founder Securities Research Institute still has personnel loss, and the number of registered analysts has decreased by 7. Liu Zhangming, director of the institute, previously said in an interview with the media that the Founder Securities Research Institute plans to increase to 200-230 people within three years, and the current number of the firm is 130-140.

The number of insurance agents of some small and medium-sized securities companies has increased significantly

Another important category of securities firms has also made new breakthroughs this year. As of September 22, the number of sponsor representatives of securities companies exceeded 8,000, an increase of 5.61% over the end of last year.

CITIC Securities became the first securities firm to reach the 600 mark, with a total of 612 insurance agents, and the number of insurance agents has increased by 39 this year, and the "one brother" of the securities industry is unshakable.

CSC Securities and CICC ranked second and third respectively with 570 and 500 insurance agents. The two leading brokerages have also continued to expand their insurance teams, adding 30 and 22 employees respectively this year.

The number of sponsor representatives of Huatai United Securities, Haitong Securities, Guotai Junan Securities, Minsheng Securities and Guosen Securities all exceeded 300. In addition, 15 securities firms have more than 100 sponsor representatives.

The number of registered agents of some small and medium-sized brokers is increasing. Oriental Underwriting Sponsor and Guojin Securities increased their staff by 35 and 30 respectively.

It is worth noting that Kaiyuan Securities, a rising star characterized by "Beijing Stock Exchange Investment Bank", has increased its staff by 22 to 112 this year.

However, according to a previous interview with the brokerage China reporter, securities firms have diverged in the recruitment of investment banking lines, and some securities companies have decreased their demand for investment banking talents, while large investment banks continue to recruit fresh graduates.

Zhongtian Guofu Securities, which also focuses on investment banking business, has lost the largest number of insurance agents this year, reducing the number of insurance agents by 14, compared with 40 at present. Some Zhongtian Guofu Securities personnel previously explained to the brokerage China reporter that some are based on personal career choices, and some are because the company deepens the incentive and constraint mechanism and actively eliminates teams and employees who fail to meet the performance appraisal.

Tianfeng Securities also lost 11 bao, with 53 baodai as of September 22. Huajin Securities reduced the number of insurance agents by 9 to 15.

On the whole, the situation facing investment banks this year is relatively grim, on the one hand, the phased tightening of IPOs, on the other hand, the rhythm of refinancing issuance is also controlled, and the problem of "more monks and less porridge" will become more and more prominent.

Responsible editor: Wang Lulu

Proofreader: Dynasty Quan