Job hunters in the financial services industry are overwhelmingly optimistic and predict they’ll land a position by the end of the year.

Almost three-quarters of people looking for jobs in the industry predicted they’d find one within the next six months, according to a survey by OneWire.com, a financial industry hiring site. Part of the out-sized optimism could be attributed to the small sample size: just 226 job seekers responded to the online survey.

Of those, 42% said the biggest obstacle in finding a job now is that no one’s hiring; 31% said it’s because there’s too much competition.

Despite the beating the industry had taken during this recession, the majority – 84% — said they wouldn’t choose a different career field if they could go back and start over.

Their optimism might be premature. Financial activities have only added jobs in two months since January 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The industry’s unemployment rate at 5.7% is one of the lowest, though.

A separate study offers worse news for the financial sector: the venture capital industry will have to shrink – possibly by half — if it wants to be profitable, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which focuses on entrepreneurship.

The study showed that less than one in five of the fastest-growing and most successful companies in the U.S. had venture investors and that less than 1% of new businesses in the U.S. had such investors.

“It has been a profitable business for many. However, our study indicates venture participants now need to overcome their resistance to change, so they can most effectively fund entrepreneurs and offer investors competitive returns,” Paul Kedrosky, senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation and author of the study, said in a release.