Asia has been a bright spot in the global employment picture, but a recent survey by recruitment firm Hudson indicates that hiring expectations across the region’s key financial markets are dipping.
In Hong Kong, 61 percent of company executives plan to hire more staff in the current quarter, down from 69 percent in the previous quarter — the first fall in 24 months. Employers are taking a more conservative approach, the report said, after a hiring spree in the first-half.
It is a similar picture in the other two markets polled, Shanghai and Singapore; both of which showed a 5 percent decline in the number of employers expecting to expand recruitment.
The poll, conducted in June, surveyed more than 1,550 key employment decision-makers from multinational corporations in all major industry sectors.
Hudson’s CEO Mike Game says the decline in hiring expectations was anticipated after two years of consistently strong jobs growth, and added that the overall outlook for the labor market remains “very positive”.
One area of opportunity is China’s banking and financial services sector, in which 78 percent of respondents forecast they will ramp up hiring, up from 75 percent in the April-June period.
Job-Hopping On the Rise for Chinese Managers
A large issue plaguing mainland firms is the high turnover of Chinese managers, according to the report.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents across all sectors in China say they have experienced managers leaving in the first year, with the information technology and telecommunication (IT&T) sector recording the highest number of incidents.
The key reasons behind the trend, according to the survey, are that employees feel their assigned role does not meet their expectations, or that they run into issues with management or work culture.
It is no surprise that “cultural fit” was cited in the report as the most important trait that employers look for in new hires, over other attributes such as creativity, flexibility and team management.