Returning expats may find it tough

Professional services firms report a slowdown in the traditional OE exodus as jobs in London and other traditional overseas destinations dry up.

Bell Gully chief executive Stephen Macliver said there had been a slower outflow of young lawyers heading for foreign shores and expected it would slow further.

"They realise it's now a tougher recruitment market for them, so they are thinking twice about when they are going."

Stories of more Kiwis coming home as the international employment market tightens clash with rising jobless figures locally.

The Reserve Bank predicts unemployment will rise substantially in coming years, with some market commentators predicting as many as 7 per cent of Kiwis will be jobless. Unemployment is now about 4.2 per cent.

Ross Buckley, KPMG partner in charge of people, performance and culture, said there had been a shift in power from the employee to the employer.

"We've probably seen a swing back to the power being with the employer, after having employees being more demanding with their conditions, people are now going for job security and stability and being appreciative of a good job."

A slowdown in work had meant KPMG was no longer "recruiting aggressively", but still received more than 100 resumes a week, Mr Buckley said.

In Britain the restructuring Royal Bank of Scotland planned to cut 30,000 jobs over the next three to five years.

Investment banks worldwide have already culled staff by the thousands. Some have folded altogether. Other corporates were looking at flexible working hours and reduced weeks to avoid having to shed jobs in the economic downturn.

Mr Macliver said the situation was not as bad as that here, and they were still hiring "the best and the brightest" of those coming home through their alumni programme.

"We anticipate there may be more wanting to come back [in the current climate], and we would certainly be seriously talking to them to try to accommodate them in the firm," Mr Macliver said. "We see this as an opportunity to get back some top talent."

Mr Buckley said job losses were not the only downside of the climate in Britain. Some Kiwis keen to head home were finding it impossible to sell their homes. A fall-off in traditional OE departures was a boon for the firm.

"The drift out has slowed, and it works quite well because we get another year or so of continuity out of them," Mr Buckley said.

Deloitte acting head of human resources Duncan Brown said his company still kept an eye out for "the top talent" returning home.

He expected over the next six to 12 months there would be fewer people heading overseas but there were opportunities in industries still growing in New Zealand.

Given the difficulty of finding premium talent in the past few years, an increasing influx of talented workers returning from overseas was a chance to bolster ranks in line with long-term growth plans.

"If you are getting good people knocking on your door, it'd be silly of us not to consider them," Mr Brown said.