Cyprus tops forex recruitment rankings as Dubai hiring cools

Cyprus has retained its position as the leading global hiring hub for online forex brokers despite a broader shift in industry growth towards emerging regions, according to an analysis by marketing and insights hub FYI.

“There has been a clear shift in FX over the past few years. The European online trading market is highly mature, client acquisition has become more challenging, and most real growth is now happening in regions such as MENA, APAC, and LATAM,” Christian Görgen, marketing consultant at FYI.LTD, told the Cyprus Mail.

“As a consequence, Cyprus has often been perceived as losing appeal as a global hub, while growth-oriented brokers increasingly focused on the GCC region and moved strategic roles there,” he added.

“However, when looking at the actual hiring data for Q1/2026, the picture becomes more nuanced,” he said.

Moreover, he explained that “Dubai saw strong momentum throughout 2025 and remains an important growth market, but hiring activity there has begun to normalise”.

“At the same time, Cyprus continues to play a central role, ranking number one for open FX positions and accounting for 22.8 per cent of all analysed vacancies,” Görgen said.

“This shouldn’t be framed as a ‘Cyprus versus Dubai’ discussion,” he added.

“These locations aren’t really in competition with each other. Instead, they serve different purposes,” he continued.

“We’re seeing a broader decentralisation across the industry, with regions developing specific capabilities and brokers building teams based on what each location does best,” he stated.

The findings are drawn from the Online Broker Hiring Report Q1/2026, which tracks recruitment activity across the global online and CFD trading industry.

The report is based on an analysis of 1,430 open roles across 53 online brokers, with 916 job descriptions reviewed in detail.

At the start of 2026, several leading online brokers were advertising more than 1,400 vacancies worldwide, highlighting continued expansion despite tougher market conditions in Europe.

Cyprus accounted for 22.8 per cent of all advertised roles, placing it well ahead of the United Arab Emirates at 6 per cent and Malaysia at 5.3 per cent.

From a functional perspective, IT remains the dominant hiring category, representing 29 per cent of all open positions globally.

These roles include software development, engineering, data-related positions and technical support functions.

The second major hiring cluster is centred on business development and revenue-oriented roles, including partner and affiliate managers, business developers, and account or relationship managers.

Marketing vacancies account for 11 per cent of roles globally, matching support and partnerships, while sales positions represent 10 per cent.

Marketing roles appear more fragmented and heavily segmented, while partner-focused roles are typically broader and more generalised.

Partner, business development and affiliate marketing roles show particularly strong demand across regions.

Language localisation is another notable trend, with demand concentrated around French, Arabic, German and Mandarin.

Seeing French emerge as the second most in-demand language may appear surprising at first glance.

However, the data shows that most French-speaking roles are linked to Swissquote, which operates under a Swiss licence, and Interactive Brokers, which is likely targeting clients in French-speaking Quebec.

Other French-language vacancies are primarily aimed at African markets.

From a European perspective, the report highlights two firms that are relatively less visible in Europe but highly active elsewhere.

HFM is currently advertising around 100 open roles across all departments, with traffic data indicating strong exposure in Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Africa and Kenya.

This suggests a clear operational focus outside Europe.

A similar pattern is observed at JustMarkets, which listed 67 open positions at the time of analysis.

Traffic indicators for JustMarkets point mainly to Malaysia and South Africa, alongside other emerging markets.

The pace of hiring suggests rapid expansion, although a median employee tenure of just 1.1 years raises questions about long-term sustainability.

In terms of working models, the report indicates a decisive move away from remote arrangements following the Covid period.

Only 12.3 per cent of roles are fully remote, typically where specialised language skills are difficult to source in major FX hubs.

Hybrid roles account for just 23 per cent of vacancies, pointing to a clear return-to-office trend across the sector.

The skills profile of advertised roles remains heavily technology-focused.

Python, Excel and SQL stand out as the most frequently requested tools across engineering and IT vacancies.

On employee benefits, the report finds relatively limited differentiation across employers.

The most commonly mentioned benefits are medical insurance, appearing in 25.9 per cent of job descriptions, followed by bonuses at 21.2 per cent and competitive salaries at 20.3 per cent.

Paid time off is cited in 15.3 per cent of roles, while education budgets appear in 10.2 per cent.

Perks such as housing, company cars and gym memberships, once common in the FX sector, have largely disappeared.

Exness is highlighted as a notable exception, with branded company cars visible in Cyprus and in-house gym facilities in Malaysia, including active recruitment for a fitness instructor.

Experience requirements are broadly balanced across seniority levels, with opportunities ranging from junior to senior positions.

C-level roles are rarely advertised publicly, although around 40 management roles are currently open, mostly for deputy, branch or country head positions tied to specific regions.

Salary transparency remains limited across the industry.

Out of 916 job descriptions, only 21 disclose any form of salary range, with compensation typically negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

Despite growing attention on artificial intelligence, AI appears in just 56 job descriptions.

For most brokers, AI currently functions more as a buzzword than a fully staffed operational area.

Pure SEO roles are also becoming scarce, with only seven such positions identified across the entire dataset.

This may signal a shift towards broader content, geo-targeted, AI-driven or reputation-focused strategies, or a stronger emphasis on business development.

FYI.LTD, which produced the report, describes itself as a marketing and insights hub for brands in the online trading space, combining public social media and web traffic data to support data-driven marketing strategies.

The data was collected on January 21, 2026 and represents a snapshot of the market at that time.

The methodology combined automated scraping, AI-assisted classification and manual review, with OpenAI technology used strictly for analytical support rather than data generation.