Booming hiring expectations in China, Hong Kong & Singapore

Hiring expectations in China, Hong Kong and Singapore are wearing bright colours in this first quarter of the year, in sharp contrast with 2009.

According to a recent quaterly survey conducted by Hudson, nearly half of respondents in China (49% Compared to 39% in Q409) forecast a headcount growth this quarter, 53 % in Hong Kong, and 51% in Singapore.

In China, the most buoyant sectors are Banking & financial services, Manufacturing & industrial and Consumer goods. The less active sector would be the Media/PR/advertising, where only 21% of respondents expect a rise.

In Hong Kong, the Banking & financial services sector diplays a very optimistic outlook with 74% of companies expecting to recruit more staff, and the consumer goods, with 40% of positive expectations, doubles it scores of Q4 2009.

In Singapore, the lead is held by Banks & Finance (69% of positive hiring anticipations), just ahead of a booming IT&T sector (60%) and with a Media/PR/advertising sector showing an impressive recovery (46%) from last quarter of 2009 (18%).

Salaries and Bonuses under pressure

With hiring expectations on the rise, the offer and demand equilibrium on the job market evolves slighty. Companies are anticipating new challenges to retain top talents. They will pay large bonuses for 2009 and are contemplating significant salary increases in 2010. 

In China, 55% of respondents say the bonuses will represent more than 10% of total compensation for their beneficiaries, while 20% forecast levels of over 20%. Increasing salaries and bonuses is considered a top priority for 23% of respondents in general, and 31% for the IT&T and Media/PR/Advertising sectors. 82 % of companies expect to pay increases of more than 10% , while 24% forecast rises of over 20%.

In Hong Kong, 37% of companies are considering increasing Salaries and Bonuses as a top priority, particularly, once again, in the IT&T sector. 19% will practice no salary increase, but 32 % say they will have to pay rises of more than 10% (Nearly 3 times the score of last year).

In Singapore, salaries and bonus increase gets the lowest score (22%). Nevertheless, 42% of respondents across all sectors indicate they would have to increase salaries by more than 10% in order to recruit the candidates they want