Analysts and business leaders predict sustained growth and
high levels of recruitment in Hong Kong and the mainland,
writes Andrea Li
FOR A THIRD successive year, job seekers rather than
employers will be in the driving seat in 2007.
With memories of the economic downturn fading fast,
business analysts and corporate leaders predict sustained
growth and high levels of recruitment activity in the months
ahead.
Though the total number of advertised jobs dipped slightly
last year compared with 2005, it was still an excellent year.
A South China Morning Post/Nielsen Media survey tracking
monthly figures recorded 211,785 vacancies for the full
12-month period, with the first half of last year being
particularly strong.
April saw an all-time high for a single month, with 22,679
available positions, before things tailed off towards December
in line with the usual seasonal pattern.
The survey's basic method of calculation is to record the
net number of positions advertised between January and the
second week of December in all the major local recruitment
publications.
Repeat and duplicate ads placed in more than one
publication are not counted.
The sectors with the most openings last year were trading,
industrial/engineering and manufacturing.
The first of these, which remains a cornerstone of Hong
Kong's economy, accounted for 14.1 per cent of the job market,
which translated to 29,785 jobs.
Employers in the industrial or engineering sectors
advertised 20,511 jobs and manufacturing enterprises posted
18,529 vacancies.
'Last year was an extremely buoyant year and there are no
indicators to suggest a slowdown in 2007,' Hewitt Associates
managing consultant Vincent Gauthier said.
'We expect to see a similar level of activity for the next
12 months.'
Recruitment consultants and HR specialists see especially
strong demand for middle managers and high-calibre staff who
are trilingual and have experience with multinationals.
Such candidates are needed in IT, corporate communications,
human resources and supply chain management, but the biggest
demand is in the banking and finance field.
Ambition managing director for Asia Guy Day said: 'We have
seen the biggest hires in the finance sector. Many banks now
have bold and ambitious plans for this part of the world, as
New York and London are long developed.
'Asia is where the opportunity now lies.'
A general shortage of skilled people is evident, though, in
accountancy and logistics to merchandising and hospitality.
Christine Pace, Adecco Personnel operations and marketing
director for Hong Kong, said: 'It is definitely an employee's
market.'
Because of this, employers are pulling out all the stops to
attract and retain good staff.
They are implementing more sophisticated HR management
strategies and bringing in more comprehensive remuneration
packages and incentive schemes.
They are also introducing more extensive training
programmes and creating new development opportunities to get
an edge.
Recruitment consultants are using innovative tactics to
track down potential candidates.
In some cases, they are extending their searches beyond
Hong Kong, are headhunting more aggressively and may even
second their own staff to work on-site for a client for a
fixed period to recruit the bulk headcount of an entire IT
department and handle other human resources needs such as
structuring pay and benefits packages.
Mr Gauthier said certain employers were no longer focusing
on finding the best recruit, but on finding someone to do the
job. This could be taken as a clear sign that things were
getting critical.
Another noticeable trend in recent months has been the
increasing reluctance of Hong Kong-based middle managers to
accept mainland postings.
While no one doubts the value of China experience, many
people's first choice is not to relocate to the mainland and,
with so many jobs on offer locally, the need to do so is not
as pressing.
Also, because most multinationals no longer view the
mainland as a hardship posting, expatriate packages are, in
overall terms, not as lucrative as a few years ago.
Even if Hong Kong's GDP does slow slightly this year to the
forecast level of 5.5 per cent to 6 per cent, that is unlikely
to have a serious impact on the bullish job market.
Alan Siu, deputy director of the Hong Kong Institute of
Economics and Business Strategy, said: 'The outlook is still
positive in 2007. The forecast is that we will continue to see
another year of global economic growth.'
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The IT sector has been more or less in the doldrums since
2000, but hiring activity picked up markedly last year and
that trend is confidently expected to continue.
The strength of the banking and finance industry has been
behind this, with asset managers and hedge funds creating a
surge in demand for IT expertise.
New offices or expanded departments have needed the latest
IT infrastructure and updated software. For this, they have
turned to external providers and added to their own in-house
teams.
Peter Udall, head of the IT and telecommunications practice
at executive search company Talent2, said: 'In the past, Hong
Kong has typically relied on systems developed [elsewhere],
but with the trend towards local development, there is a
massive shortage of people skilled in this work.'
Qualified professionals with knowledge of specific product
implementation procedures and application developers are also
highly sought after.
This has led employers, especially banks, to regard the
retention of good IT staff as a corporate priority. As a
result, they are paying more attention to career development
opportunities and offering attractive counter-offers if
employees consider leaving.
Salaries are going up and anyone who does switch jobs can
expect an average increase of between 10 and 20 per cent but,
not surprisingly, genuine specialists may get substantially
more than that. For IT staff who prefer short-term contracts,
there is no shortage of work.
'The bulk of contract staff are usually recruited from
overseas, with a typical contract spanning six months,' Mr
Udall said.
He added that IT professionals were no longer recruited for
their technical knowledge. They were also expected to have
business acumen, an appreciation of commercial requirements
and interpersonal skills, so that they could meet user and
client expectations.
This combination of skills was what headhunters and
employers would be looking for in the next 12 months.
ACCOUNTING
Traditionally, the main hunting ground for a recruiter
hoping to attract a qualified accountant was among the Big
Four accountancy firms. Now, however, they are desperately
searching for people at all levels to cope with the surge in
work that has come with the mainland's rapidly expanding
financial sector and the flood of initial public offerings.
Ernst & Young plans to take on 200 graduates in Hong
Kong and a further 1,000 in the mainland this year. The firm
also hopes to hire up to 600 experienced accountants for the
same territories.
Realising that money talks, the Big Four are said to be
offering salary rises of between 20 and 30 per cent to retain
staff.
Mr Day said: 'With so much work on, [they are] making it
much more lucrative for accountants to stay put than to take a
job in the commercial sector.'
Commercial enterprises needing qualified accountants will
have to up their offers accordingly.
According to a recent Ambition report, the situation is
such that a junior accountant with a major firm now earns more
than one with five years of post-qualification experience in
the commercial sector.
Nick Neal, manager of commerce at Robert Walters, said it
had become necessary to look for recruits in overseas markets.
He expected the high level of demand to continue unabated
in the first half of this year.
Reasons for this included general business expansion, the
fact that many companies were using Hong Kong as their
regional headquarters and the need for more trained
accountants in the banking sector.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Following a period of consolidation, most opportunities in
the telecoms industry now lie with the providers of
value-added services.
Companies based in Europe and the US eager to break into
the mobile phone market in Asia have been recruiting people
who can develop new media content.
Established players have been looking to diversify by
offering additional services which can generate new streams of
revenue.
Angus Washington, manager of the sales and marketing
division at Robert Walters, said these included sophisticated
voice-mail options and managed network services.
The resulting jobs have mainly been in frontline sales,
account management, marketing and product development.
'Candidates who can sell solutions versus products are in
high demand,' Mr Washington said, noting that this required a
different approach and a distinct set of skills.
'Selling solutions is about looking at the customers'
requirements and thinking what would best suit their needs.'
The industry, which is now perceived as being stable rather
than offering the prospect of spectacular growth, is having
difficulty attracting sufficient candidates.
'The market is already quite mature and, with revenue
growth and career opportunities stable, not many new people
have chosen the field as a career,' Mr Washington said.
LOGISTICS
Leading logistics companies are becoming more specialised
to gain a distinct advantage as they expand in new markets.
Anthony Modrich, senior consultant of the supply chain and
logistics division at Robert Walters, said that this had led
to increased demand for high-calibre individuals who
understood the latest technology and the intricacies of
quality control, transport and retailing.
Junior and middle managers are also needed, particularly in
the areas of sales, operations and account management.
According to the SCMP/ Nielsen Media survey, 5,875
logistics jobs were advertised last year, the second quarter
being the strongest with 1,790 openings.
'Logistics companies no longer just want sales or
operations skills; they want people with specialised expertise
to meet the demands of their high rates of expansion,' Mr
Modrich said.
Employers are looking outside the sector for prospective
candidates. Someone with work experience at a hi-tech
manufacturing company could easily fit into the logistics
environment. They would boost customer confidence by talking
the right language and would also understand how best to
tailor effective supply chain solutions.
People in more standard roles in the logistics sector can
expect salary increases of about 5 per cent for a job move.
But top-tier candidates with the qualifications and experience
to handle a regional role could get between 20 per cent and 40
per cent extra.
MANUFACTURING
China's pre-eminence as a centre for global manufacturing
was confirmed last year and there are few signs that position
will be challenged in any significant way in the foreseeable
future.
The focus this year will probably be on finding recruits to
fill specialised roles, though there will still be openings in
general management and for human resources and finance
professionals.
Peter Yeo, a manufacturing and industrial consultant with
Hudson, said: 'Companies are now looking for people with
expertise in environment, health and safety and continuous
improvement practices.
'Those with qualifications such as the Six Sigma Black Belt
or in 'lean reduction concepts' in manufacturing are very much
sought after.'
He said mainland-based employers favoured candidates with
language skills, the ability to fit into a different cultural
environment and international experience.
'Traditionally, few companies in this part of the world
have formally structured health and safety,' Mr Yeo said.
While there was a reasonable pool of talent in the mainland
to take on generic positions, there was still a long way to go
before enough homegrown executives had these specialist
management skills.
Because of the comparative scarcity of such individuals,
those suitably qualified can command salary increases as high
as 50 per cent when changing job.
With demand far outrunning supply, it is even becoming
common for them to get two or three unsolicited job offers a
month.
Adecco's Christine Pace said that one key factor was that
they might be required to relocate to one of China's more
remote provinces.
She said recently similar opportunities had been opening up
in other emerging markets such as Vietnam.
MERCHANDISING AND PURCHASING
The merchandising and purchasing sector was very active
last year, with more than 5,000 jobs advertised in each of the
first two quarters.
Mid-ranking and senior merchandisers with expertise in
textiles and garments, jewellery and technical products were
needed, but they had to prove they could add value for
prospective employers.
Ms Pace attributed the dearth of talent in part to an
education system which had done too little to promote the
attractions of the field.
She said that with more Hong Kong-based companies now
expanding their sourcing operations well beyond southern
China, candidates must be prepared to travel frequently and
visit factories and deal with suppliers in second- and
third-tier mainland cities.
HOSPITALITY
The hotel and restaurant industry has been experiencing a
boom, creating almost unprecedented demand for staff from
entry-level waiter to sales and marketing director.
Rene Schillings, managing director for Greater China and
Singapore at Hospitality Executive Search, said: 'We signed on
a lot more clients in 2006, which indicates hotels are all
struggling to find the people they need.'
Add to that the industry's notoriously high rate of staff
turnover - about 25 per cent a year - and that gives some idea
of the scale of the challenge.
The SCMP/Nielsen Media survey showed the third quarter of
last year was the busiest, with 2,064 jobs advertised.
There was consistent demand for food and beverage staff and
for professionals to fill sales and marketing, human resources
and training roles.
'Hong Kong hotels have traditionally looked down on
candidates who have spent a long time in China because there
is a perception that, in a less developed hotel market, their
skill sets come to a standstill,' Mr Schillings said.
'This attitude is slowly changing, but people who took up
jobs in China in the late 1980s and early 1990s are finding it
very difficult to return to Hong Kong with the same level
job.'
Even so, they are sure to find many opportunities either in
Hong Kong or in the fast-expanding Macau market and, with the
appropriate experience, will soon be able to increase their
bargaining power.
