The Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made clear his nation’s intention to improve ties with Japan on Sunday, Reuters reports, making reference to the two countries’ often antagonistic shared history.

Despite a series of territorial disputes surrounding a cluster of islets in the East China Sea, Sino-Japanese relations have been showing signs of healing in recent months. Wang told his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono, that his visit to Beijing, was a show of Japan’s wish to improve political and economic ties, something in both countries’ interest.

Wang’s announcement was optimistic but realistic of the many “disturbances and obstacles” between China and Japan. He said in a press-conference “China-Japan ties always sail against the current, either forging ahead or drifting backward,” and that “we hope that the Japanese side will neither relax in its efforts nor fall back, and turn the spoken statements into concrete actions.”

By Nicholas Jiang

The early achievements in the financial services sector no longer provide any guarantee of longer-term career success, says a 16-year industry veteran. Some of the jobs in traditional financial industry are shrinking as more firms consolidate and reduce their portfolio management and research staff.

“Graduates who think financial industry is still about making fast money are in for a shock,” but I believe many front-office professionals will have to “reinvent themselves” in the near future. But actually, the industry doesn’t need people who think they can make a few good stock calls. We need people who can digest information and understand the broader context of finance construction,”

If you’ve been through, say, many years in research and many years in practice, you might now need to gain new skills that will focus your career in a different and more in-demand area. Financial industry is challenging at the moment, so you have to be flexible and opened minded about your career plans these days.

For Investment banks over the past five years, many positions in banking have been changed, for example, nearly 7,000 front office investment banking jobs have disappeared. The majority of these cuts have been in the fixed income currencies and commodities (FICC) divisions.

FICC revenues have been the big drag for investment banks over the past five years, but they were up by 9% year on year in 2016, and there were big gains in rates (26%) and credit (20%). Factor in that FICC teams’ revenues were up 37% in the second half and continued cuts seems a little harsh.

Longer term, layoffs have slowed compared to five years’ ago, but they haven’t stopped, even now – Deutsche Bank laid off 150 people in its fixed income division only yesterday. There’s one good reason why investment banks are reluctant to hire more in FICC – productivity.

Investment banks are continuing to squeeze their fixed income markets staff because, simply, they can now. Juniorisation means that banks can get away with paying relatively inexperienced staff less – and some believe trading is a young man’s game anyway. Meanwhile, automation means banks simply need fewer people and an uptick in revenues is unlikely to counter this trend. Then there’s capital costs – banks generally can’t afford to allocate more capital to their trading businesses.

A code can’t be underestimated“Quants”

As for the income changing of financial service, we can also through an example to see. Quants are it. While sales jobs in banks disappear and trading jobs are automated into mundanity, quants are the new thing. Banks are alert to the value of data, and quants are the alchemists who are supposed to turn their data into gold. – Barclays CEO Jes Staley typified the mood yesterday when he said Barclays is building a “new strategic data architecture,” and, “looking at using data in new and innovative ways.” Barclays needs quants. And so does every other bank out there.

When people refer to quants in investment banks, desk quants are usually what they have in mind. Desk quants work with banks’ traders to create statistical models to analyze trading book risks and identify opportunities to create complex derivatives to help clients. The desk quants create pricing models for these derivatives. They also create models that create strategies to direct trading decisions and that make traders more efficient. But desk quants in banks aren’t actually traders. And because of this, they’re not as well paid.

“Even though quants are crucial to a bank’s profitability, they’re considered to be more of a support function,” says Max Soslove, a senior head-hunter at GQR Global Markets. “Quants build the pricing models and algorithms that price derivatives, so they are revenue generating – but not as much as traders.” The director-level quant puts it more bluntly: “A trader can claim that he/she “made” X amount a year, and shall be compensated as such. As for quants? They are viewed by most people (traders, sales, senior management) as coders who are not completely useless.”.

If they want to keep hold of the best desk quants, banks may need to up their game. After all, they’re not the only ones chasing financially-literate quant talent: systematic macro hedge funds want it too. And systematic macro funds are willing to pay big money. “Some of the highest paid people I’ve ever seen are “quants” running systematic trading strategies in hedge funds,” says one headhunter. “Those funds will hire from banks. They tend to want juniors who’ve spent a few years working in something like front office starts at Goldman Sachs. – A PhD who’s had the edges knocked off.”

Hiring Routine

Market risk and compliance departments are seeing increased MBA hiring as banks seek greater security and control of risky investment classes,” said the report from TopMBA.com. The upheaval in the financial regulatory landscape has created more job opportunities in risk and compliance, but banks have also been hiring MBAs into financial control and technology positions, it suggests.

MBAs have been falling out of love with finance. Investment banks are recruiting fewer business school graduates, while MBAs themselves are instead looking to more stable career options in consulting.

Will you be shown the door or welcomed with open arms by financial services firms in the coming year? Yes, few financial services companies were overly bullish with recruitment at this moment, but for certain areas of investment banking – notably advisory functions – the landscape was much improved. Meanwhile, competition for talent from the buy-side ensured a steady stream of replacement hiring throughout the year.

We believe some finance professionals will be happy, others could find themselves on decidedly shakier ground.

Banking sector is still a great place to a start-up

Banking sector is a great place to start your career, at the same time for the banks; it also helps train people up for the demands of working for a start-up.

Banking sector needs great Excel and financial modelling skills and requires their people working in an unstructured and changeable environment, which they have the right energy and can hit the ground running.”

“In the bank, it’s a great training ground. At bank, you learn professionalism, attention to detail, operating under pressure. Things come at you thick and fast and you learn to prioritize and make the right decisions. These are great skills to have in a start-up.”

Nicholas Jiang is Managing Director of Transwell Group.

The total annual number of births in China fell in 2017, a sign that the government’s relaxation of the one-child policy is not likely to lead to a significant increase in the country’s birth rate, the Financial Times reports.

There were 17.2 million births in China last year, down from 17.9 million in 2016, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics released Thursday.

The government’s relaxation of the one-child policy in 2016 led to an extra 1.3 million births that year, but the new data supports the observations of many analysts that this increase was a one-off, rather than the start of a lasting trend.

“Some people took advantage of the lifting of the ban but most Chinese, even in rural areas, are concerned about how to pay for education . . . It’s very hard to encourage people to have more children,” said Martin Whyte, a professor at Harvard University. 

The country’s low birth rate is a long-term threat to its economic development, as many analysts warn that China may “get old before it gets rich”. The country’s population aged 60 or over is predicted to more than double by 2050 to reach 440 million people.

Education is moving far beyond meeting in brick and mortar classrooms. Here are three trends that are transforming the face of continuing education and likely to overthrow the traditional model altogether. We’ll also address how these overlapping trends affect each other.

Online Learning for Nearly Everything

MIT’s online massive open online courses can be seen as the first stamp of official approval for online learning. They moved a large number of undergraduate and graduate courses online, free for the viewing. Previously, if you wanted to receive advice from a professor, graded homework, and college credit or credit toward a micro-degree, payment was involved. Online learning is now becoming a routine alternative to attending classes in a brick and mortar building. There are classes with several times as many online attendees as students in person, while many classes feature a professor teaching from the home office while students from around the world connect, interact, submit homework, and receive feedback.

Online learning is also altering workplace learning. Workplace training on everything from sexual harassment training to lead exposure courses to HR seminars on bribery and corruption taught to procurement professionals are being taught online. 

Micro-Certifications/Micro-Degrees

College enrollment in four-year programs remains strong with Millennials with four million reaching adulthood per year. The shift toward vocational programs and apprenticeships has started to reduce growth rates in college enrollment. 

In the place of masters’ degrees for adults seeking continuing education is the micro-certification or micro-degree. You see people earning Six Sigma certificates instead of earning a master’s degree in engineering or MBA. They go to coding camp for several months on the weekend or a few weeks in person instead of returning to school for a computer science degree. For many adults, these micro-degrees taken simply online or in person are perfect for continuing education and are recognized outside of the workplace.

New Degrees of Specialization

Instead of the conventional master’s in business administration, it is possible to earn a master’s degree in supply chain management, IT management or international business. Instead of simply earning a master’s degree in degree in education and hoping to become a school principal or continuing education coordinator in an HR department, you can now earn an online master of education in adult and continuing education through an online MEAD program. These specialized degrees allow their holders to stand out in a sea of generic degrees and argue that their coursework makes them uniquely suited for a specific type of position.

Conclusion

Online learning is becoming not only accepted but standard both in the workplace and in place of the traditional college experience. Micro-degrees and micro-certifications are increasingly popular for working adults seeking to invest in themselves, while colleges are giving them equal weight with college coursework by accepting them as college credit. A bewildering array of specialized four year, masters, and doctorate programs are available to prepare people for new careers while allowing them to stand out from those who hold more generic degrees.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the calm in China’s currency is making some investors uneasy. Twice in the past year, sudden drops in the value of the yuan have rattled global markets. Since then, the People’s Bank of China has calmed the waters by improving communications and the government has increased stimulus in a bid to stabilize growth. However, analysts are worrying that stimulus alone won’t be enough to get China’s growth back on track and support the yuan indefinitely. Since its devaluation in August 2015, the yuan has depreciated 6.9% against the dollar. But recent stability came at the cost of delaying reforms. To sustain growth, China has postponed overhauls of its state-owned enterprises, many of which are plagued by overcapacity and bad debt.