At a time when many financial firms are cutting jobs in anticipation of a recession, Fidelity Investments plans to ramp up hiring. The company announced last week that it intends to fill a staggering 4,000 positions – including advisors – in the first half of 2023.

"We take a long-term view to investing in our overall workforce and our people, just as we do in our businesses," said Kirsten Kuykendoll, head of talent acquisition at Fidelity. "We're not only continuing to fill new roles in 2023, but we're investing in the people who work here through our benefits, career and development opportunities. We encourage our associates to ask, 'What's next?' and learn-by-doing across our company, which offers an unmatched amount of career exploration pathways."

Fidelity's hiring efforts are focusing on customer service and tech, the company said in a statement accompanying the release of its annual report.

• Client-facing hires(45% of open roles) include customer service representatives, financial consultants, licensed professionals, and sales and relationship management positions supporting retail, workplace and intermediary clients.
• Technology hires(18% of open roles) refer to full-stack software engineers, data scientists, mobile/IOS engineers and architecture professionals.
• Business support functions hires(37% of open roles) include operations, client services, product management, marketing, human resources, finance, compliance and more.

Related: 'Inflation is here to stay': Fidelity, others pushing back against the Fed's 'soft landing'

The hiring plans are in contrast to other asset management firms, such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, which have cut jobs. BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, announced last month that it intends to cut 500 employees, or around 3% of its total workforce. AllianceBernstein recently cut around 100 jobs.