Before the onset of the financial crisis, Content and Code, a technology company based in east London, would not normally have featured on the pages of a national newspaper. But it has suddenly become remarkable for one reason: it is a professional services company that is hiring staff.

The company, which employs 83 people, has seen demand for its IT services grow since it was founded seven years ago. That demand has increased in recent months as larger businesses outsource in an effort to cut costs. Tim Wallis, chief executive and co-founder of the company, said he plans to take on 25 more staff this year.

At a time when economists are predicting unemployment to rise by 1m to 3m by the end of this year, supermarkets and discount retailers have also scrambled to prove their resilience by announcing thousands of new jobs.

Since the beginning of the year, supermarkets have promised to create more than 20,000 new positions. As graduate jobs become more scarce, Aldi, the discount chain, is now offering university leavers a starting salary of £40,000, rising to £60,000 after three years, and a company car.

Similarly, budget retailers Peacocks and Poundland have announced new jobs on the back of improved sales as customers trade down.

But for all the City’s newly redundant, there may be other alternatives to stocking shelves at the supermarket. Niche areas of the economy are also hiring, although some more openly than others.

GRS, the recruitment consultancy, expects jobs in risk management to increase by 1,000 to 4,000 over the next 18 months as companies seek to protect themselves from further catastrophes.

“During this year, we’re going to see compliance and risk going nuts,” GRS said, adding that most of the job creation was expected during the summer.

Ex-City workers seek out charity roles

Tough times for the banking and financial services sector have helped Britain’s top earners discover a sense of community spirit, writes Samantha Pearson.

Newly redundant City workers are increasingly turning their backs on the sector, pursuing apparently more fulfilling and stable jobs in charities and public organisations.

But as donations dry up and local councils shed workers, these sectors are unlikely to remain havens for long.

Career services companies say 30-40 per cent of their clients do not want to return to work in the City, compared with 10 per cent in September. Although vacancies in the corporate world are scarce, many are switching careers as a lifestyle choice.

Drake Beam Morin, which operates in 85 countries, said a third of its ex-City workers were moving into state jobs. “Often those who have been in the City for a while and who don’t have huge financial constraints are looking to put something back,” said Karen Parsons, UK financial director.

Penna, which offers services such as interview roleplays and healthy-eating classes to up to 80 ex-City workers a day, said many clients, such as accountants, were staying in the same role but switching to the more stable public sector.

Former employees from banking and financial services are also considering charities as an alternative.

Flow Caritas, the agency that recruits for charities such as Age Concern, said it has seen a 20 per cent increase over the past three months in the number of CVs it has received from ex-City workers. “People who have become a bit cynical of the City are looking to work for good causes,” said Rory White, director. Charities are seen as a safer option.”

Like the public sector, charities are keen to welcome new, financially minded, recruits. Both areas have traditionally suffered from a skills shortage as highly trained workers have sought higher wages.

Oxfam said: “The skills and experience of job candidates with a City background are highly valued in the non-governmental organisation sector and there is no doubt we could put them to worthwhile use.”

Overseas jobs are also being targeted by ex-City workers, with posts in Dubai and Singapore proving popular.

After local authorities lost more than £1bn in the Icelandic banking crisis, the public sector is also expected to employ greater numbers of risk managers.

Elsewhere, Harvey & Thompson, the UK’s largest pawnbroker, said it expects to create 100 new jobs over the coming year.

Companies offering third-party cheque-cashing facilities and pay-day loan services are also on the look-out for new employees.

As traditional forms of credit dry up and people become wary of depositing cheques into overdrawn accounts for fear of having those overdrafts revoked, such companies are remaining popular.

Geoff Holland, chief executive of the British Cheque Cashers Association, said: “The current economic climate has not decreased our members’ branch-opening programme. A lot of our members are small but they have added some jobs to their operations.”

However, Ian McCafferty, the CBI’s chief economic adviser, said companies appeared to be cutting jobs faster than in previous downturns, due to the speed of contraction and extreme uncertainty about the future availability of loans.

“We have to focus on making credit flow across the economy,” he said. “Otherwise, healthy and viable companies are in danger of having to lay-off workers.”

The financial sector has been the worst hit, with a 10th of London’s 324,000 financial services employees expected to lose their jobs this year, according to estimates from the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

Job losses have also been drawn out as companies struggle to adjust to the uncertainty of a downturn, which was itself sparked by a crisis in credit, or confidence.

More than a year since the cracks started to show in the banking sector with the collapse of Northern Rock, Barclays this week announced the bulk of its job cuts. Companies such as Galliford Try, the housebuilder, have also increasingly relied on strategies such as four-day working weeks in order to better negotiate the unpredictable course of the downturn.

But while heavy job losses among the recession’s losers paint a bleak picture, it is the fate of the survivors and relatively untouched sectors that may be greater cause for concern in the long term.

Announcements by Renold and Fenner, the engineering companies, of job cuts in the low hundreds went relatively unnoticed this week. After two decades of shifting production abroad, in order to take advantage of low labour costs and move closer to their end customers, there were few jobs to be lost in the UK market.

But the loss of those few is likely to be permanent. Mark Abrahams, chief executive of Fenner, said even when trading conditions do improve, there will be less scope to increase domestic headcount and take advantage of favourable exchange rates.

And if credit availability continues to hinder business expansion, then the long-awaited economic recovery is likely to be even more protracted.

Additional reporting by Miles Johnson