The financial services industry added 3,000 jobs in February, a big upturn from a loss of 10,000 jobs in January. The big question of course is whether this hiring momentum will be sustained.

"The next few months--the perennial high time for Wall Street hiring--are going to be the most telling. There are some signs that this Spring will bring a flurry of offer letters," FINS reports. "For one, deal-making is off to its strongest start since Lehman was a going concern. Global M&A volume in the first two months of the year hit $435 billion, a 9 percent increase from 2010."

At the same time, Bank of America and other big mortgage lenders may be forced to hire thousands to have enough processors to get through the foreclosure fiasco. Mortgage and foreclosure experts are in demand, as are compliance experts.

Many of the top banks added jobs in 2010. Bank of America, the biggest U.S. consumer bank, boosted its headcount by 4,000, or 1.4 percent. Wells Fargo increased its headcount by 4,900, or 1.8 percent. Citigroup, however, cut jobs by 5,300, or 2 percent, to 260,000.

We could see the hiring pick up dramatically in the near future, especially if the economy cooperates. Wells Fargo, for example, plans to hire 1,000 in the Washington, D.C. area soon.

The other big wild card is mergers and acquisitions. We're seeing signs of a boom, and that could stoke hiring on the investment banking side, which might offset losses on the trading side.

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