Financial hiring making a comeback.

• Author: Ladd, Scott
• Position: EMPLOYMENT

The new Robert Half Financial Hiring Index reveals two positive signs signaling the employment picture is improving: a net 2 percent of chief financial officers interviewed say they plan to hire accounting and finance professionals in the first quarter of 2011, while 88 percent of the CFOs expressed confidence in their firms' growth potential in Q1.

While modest, the project hiring number represents an increase from the fourth-quarter projection and is the strongest showing in more than two years, according to the Index.

But 50 percent of the executives interviewed said they are finding it challenging to locate highly skilled finance professionals, a figure four points higher than the previous quarter and up from 34 percent in the second quarter of 2010.

"As business needs rise, companies are more open to hiring on both a full-time and temporary basis," said Max Messmer, Robert Half's chairman and CEO. "Some firms that made deep personnel cuts are now...