The past month has seen Japanese lenders announce mass job cuts and huge losses: now is definitely not the time to be working in the consumer finance sector.

Perhaps suffering the most is Aiful, which last month announced plans to shed some 2,000 jobs – almost half of its regular workforce – on the back of heavy losses. Rival lender Acom, which is backed by MUFG, is also under pressure after seeing its share prices plummet nearly 60 per cent over the past year.

Much of the troubles stem from a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that ordered firms to repay excess interest payments and put a cap on the maximum interest rates lenders can charge.

And this is one story that doesn’t seem to have a silver lining: recruiters aren’t expecting anything but more gloom for the nation’s beleaguered lenders.

“These sort of firms still look like they are in trouble and I can’t imagine this is going to become a growth industry in any way, shape or form,” says Warwick Pearmund, a senior consultant for finance sector recruitment at Boyd & Moore.

He adds that given consumer finance firms’ poor performances and a continued drop-off in consumer spending, there isn’t much hope that anyone will need to start hiring.

Another recruiter who isn’t too hopeful for the sector is Louisa Benedicto, senior manager at Hays Accountancy and Finance, who says the consumer finance industry in general is facing a tough market.

Things are especially serious with credit card firms after the new rate laws, she says, and there could be more turbulence to come: “As GE sold their credit card business to Shinsei, I imagine there will be more restructuring and sell outs in the near future.”