A Surprising Hot Spot for Hedge Fund Jobs

Absolute Return just posted the numbers for the top 5 cities for hedge fund jobs. As you might expect, New York topped the list, followed by Chicago, Boston, Dallas, and the Stamford-Greenwich-Westport CT area.

New York was far and away the big winner, with roughly 41% of global hedge fund managed there. And a whopping 45% of the biggest funds with $1 billion or more in assets.

The Westport area was heavily influenced by hiring for Bridgewater, the largest hedge fund in the world. While Chicago is home a number of funds, notably Citadel. Highland Capital was the biggest hedge fund employer in the Dallas area.

But here’s a surprise. San Francisco was absent from their top 5 list (but would have been included if Palo Alto, Redwood City and Berkeley were counted as one region). And hiring patterns indicate that Minnesota is now a hot spot for hedge fund hiring, driven by a demand for senior hedge fund talent for firms such as Pine River Capital, Waterstone Capital and Whitebox Advisors, who are all actively hiring this year.

Across the pond (the big pond to the west), Bloomberg reports that Asia is attracting hedge fund jobs and investment in a big way.

Both Hong Kong and Singapore have been actively luring hedge funds while the U.S. and Europe have been piling on new regulations. Singapore is on track to become the second-largest global asset management center by 2025, after New York.

Global firms such as New York-based Soros Fund Management LLC and Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG) are establishing offices in Asia. Investors allocated more than $3.6 billion in net new capital to Asian hedge funds in the first quarter of 2011, which is roughly 11 percent of the $32 billion in new capital given to hedge funds worldwide, according to data from Hedge Fund Research Inc.

And about 25 of the biggest global hedge-fund firms are seeking to expand in Asia, according to a Credit Suisse Group AG report issued last year.

Could you see yourself pursuing a hedge fund job opportunity in Asia … or Minnesota? Add your comments below.

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