Three distinct tracks are emerging for accountants in the Cayman Islands employment market. What caused these tracks to emerge and where they are currently headed is a peek into the future of the Cayman Islands’ economy. Accountants with an eye on career progression should be asking themselves which track they are on and whether it serves their medium and long-term ambitions, writes Steve McIntosh, CML.

The first track represents companies and accounting roles in sectors of the financial industry that are well-anchored to the Cayman Islands. The predominant areas are insolvency, captive insurance, independent director services and certain areas of audit (predominantly captives and so-called “local sign off”). These areas are here to stay, because the services they provide can only be provided from here in the Cayman Islands for regulatory and practical reasons. 

Although they are not exactly booming, they are at least not in decline. And although the relatively slow growth rate restricts promotional opportunities (which come about through only either turnover or growth), there is no reason to believe that you would be better in any other geographical or industrial market in 2010. What this means for accountants in these sectors is that your job is relatively safe.

The second track represents financial services companies and roles that are less well anchored in Cayman. The most obvious, lamentably, is hedge fund administration, a sector employing a large number of middle and upper-middle class Caymanians and expats. This sector has been in decline since the watershed departure of Goldman Sachs in 2007. It is a matter of conventional “wisdom” that the decline in the sector is directly related to the global recession, even though some in the private sector, including myself, were sounding the alarm to Government at least a year prior to the credit crunch.

The reality of the decline is that for several years the immigration environment has been eroding Cayman’s competitive edge as a domicile for fund administration to the benefit of competitors like Canada and Ireland, whose fund admin sectors have been nurtured and which as a result have soared. 

Redundancies have been commonplace in the industry for the last 18 months. Paradoxically for many accountants in the sector, this is a double-edged sword. Whilst the contraction hurts both security and prospects, the uncertainty creates turnover that can actually create opportunities for advancement.  However, the bottom line is that, absent some sea-change in the business environment (ie immigration), the medium and long term prospects on this track are nothing short of lousy.

The third track represents accountants, financial controllers and finance managers in companies that depend on the local market and which, to a greater or lesser degree, are primarily exposed to the local economy. These companies are boats bobbing on the economic tide and, because the tide is going out, some boats will inevitably run aground.  One of the great things about the accounting profession is that it takes as long to account for a loss as it does for a profit. In other words, your job is secure.

Until it isn’t. What I mean is that your job is safe only for as long as the company is safe. If there are stormy seas ahead, at least you will be the first to know.

What any of this means for your longer-term career depends upon three things: your international mobility, your degree of specialism or flexibility and your salary/lifestyle expectations. 

In the meantime, if you are not certain about the future and find yourself in either of the last two categories, I wouldn’t necessarily start looking frantically for alternatives, but I would start counting your own beans a little more carefully just in case.