Hiring Data Show Credit Market Continues Move to Core from Niche

At times headlines suggest that the private credit market has not just hit peak levels but may be headed for a bit of a reckoning. The pundits see “signs of strain amid strong overheating risks” or the Fed issues warnings about stability as the market “rivals traditional bank lending.”

First Brands has certainly contributed to the noise, and one banker famously called out what he saw as “cockroach problems” in the credit market, suggesting one problem means more may be hiding. However, not everyone agrees and big moves and interesting data point to other assumptions and scenarios.

First, those who are not part of the action still want in and others already in want even more. In January, private capital group CVC agreed to acquire Marathon Asset Management for $1.6 billion Of course, this highlights consolidation in overall private markets, but it also points to ongoing demand for credit managers.

Private credit is also pushing beyond direct lending, an old-fashioned framework to describe the asset class. Credit secondaries are growing in demand, for example, and are becoming less niche and more core with more and more managers raising dedicated private-credit pools. And private credit is also pushing into securitized asset finance among other forms of lending. The asset class by most accounts is growing.

When I was in the daily media scrum early in my career, I would cover the US Labor Department employment numbers and learned enough to know that the jobs data usually tell a pretty true story. So, let’s take a look at hiring trends in the credit market, the capital raising space in particular, for some color.

According to Sasha Jensen, who runs Jensen Partners, the largest executive search and advisory firm dedicated to the global capital raising and investment space, private credit continues to serve as a “source of remarkable consistency across market environments.”  In fact, Jensen’s data show in its latest research note, that total credit hiring reached 585 moves for all of 2025, up from 550 in 2024 and 540 in 2023. This is not just about growth rates, Jensen says, but stability. The third quarter of 2025 recorded 141 credit moves and last quarter recorded 143, making credit “the only major asset class that did not experience a late-year slowdown.”

What does this all mean? Simply put, “this consistency reflets the continued expansion of direct lending, asset-based finance, structure credit and insurance-aligned strategies.” As more capital look for predictable yield and flexible structures, Jensen concludes, credit has become “the connective tissue between institution, insurers and private wealth platforms,” which overall “supports steady hiring and long-term team build out.”

“Private credit is no longer one of many alternatives, it is the systematic anchor of capital formation,” Jensen says. And if the jobs picture is any indication, the capital raising machine is full steam ahead with few cockroaches in sight.

Mark Kollar
Partner, Prosek Partners

Mark Kollar’s monthly Letter from America can be read at The Alternative Investor.