Ferguson McKenzie, the small Scottish recruitment specialist, forecasts that it will break the £1m-turn-over barrier on the back of a global credit crisis increasingly bleeding into Scotland�s financial services sector.

Ferguson McKenzie, the small Scottish recruitment specialist, forecasts that it will break the £1m-turn-over barrier on the back of a global credit crisis increasingly bleeding into Scotland's financial services sector.

Amid a crisis that began as a US sub-prime lending problem and has now radiated around the world, financial sectors everywhere are being pummelled. Ferguson McKenzie's turnover projections serve as a reminder that the demise of one company can sometimes be a springboard for another's success.

The firm is also one of the recruitment companies that will be used by Lloyds TSB to help decide who stays and who goes in the wake of its agreed takeover with HBOS.

The recruitment specialist yesterday said it had already noted a substantial increase in the number of financial jobs on the market this year.

Shona McKenzie, a partner and co-founder of the company, said: "We expect that situation to continue and intensify for the foreseeable future."

Asked specifically about Ferguson McKenzie's role in the prospective, post-takeover job cuts at HBOS and Lloyds TSB, McKenzie said: "What we do is identify what the new culture will be and teach the management how to recruit those who fit best.

"In this situation, last in-first out no longer applies. Even qualifications don't matter.

"It's all about the fit. And the ones who don't make it will be gently put back on the jobs market and some of them we may end up placing elsewhere."

Ferguson McKenzie last year turned over around £500,000 and said that it was projecting that it would hit the £1m mark in four years - although McKenzie admitted the forecast was "conservative", given the economic circumstances.

Thousands of jobs are likely to be axed in Scotland in the wake of the HBOS takeover, expected to be completed later this year, and its ripple effect into the rest of the financial and associated sectors north of the border will add to the out-of-work total.

Moreover, the consequences of troubles at Royal Bank of Scotland - the latest UK bank to suffer a crisis of shareholder confidence - could pile further misery into an already glutted Scottish jobs market.

McKenzie said: "Twelve months ago, it was all about focusing on positions that were difficult to fill and finding the right candidate for companies. Now it's more about differentiating candidates among the many candidates applying for the same positions.

"We're already seeing a situation, particularly in the financial service sector, where there might be 80 candidates applying for one job, as opposed to maybe 18 or 20 candidates a year ago - and these are all highly-qualified people, PhDs and MAs.

"As the market tightens here, we're already placing more and more Scottish applications in position south of the border."

McKenzie, whose company has dual headquarters in Glasgow and Edinburgh, also said that there had been a marked increase in the number of applications from industries connected with the stressed property market, such as construction professionals and solicitors.

"Applicants are becoming a lot more flexible than they once were," she said.

"Some are even willing to take a pay cut, which we weren't seeing a year ago.

"Something is definitely happening out there. Even in the workplace, we've heard that time-keeping is improving and workers are becoming generally more obliging. It's the fear factor kicking in."