Job vacancies rose by 21% year-on-year in Quarter 1 2015 compared to Q1 2014, according to the Morgan McKinley Asia Pacific Employment Monitor. The number of professionals actively seeking new roles was up 18% quarter-on-quarter from Q4 2014 to Q1 2015, while compared to the previous quarter, job vacancies rose by 34% between Q4 2014 and Q1 2015
Richie Holliday, Chief Operating Officer, Morgan McKinley Asia Pacific commented, "As many organisations moved into a new financial year and released fresh recruitment budgets, we saw the expected uplift in new mandates. The uplift on a year-on-year basis has also been encouraging."
The employment outlook in Asia Pacific looks positive according to Morgan McKinley’s data for the first quarter of 2015. Despite mixed economic results (leaning to the negative, in some places) the APAC Employment Monitor data shows no slowdown in hiring. This indicates that the economies of the nations that make up the Asia Pacific region could be changing for the better, following the seasonal dip in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Similarly, the results of the 2015 Manpower Employment Outlook Survey indicate that Hong Kong employers continue to report upbeat hiring plans for the next three months. After removing seasonal variations from the survey data, Hong Kong’s Net Employment Outlook stands at an increase of 16%; stable when compared with the previous quarter and unchanged year-on-year.
Twenty-one percent of 700 employers surveyed forecasted an increase in staffing levels in Q3 2015, while only 4% predicted decreases. Employers in all six industry sectors expect to grow staffing levels during Q3 2015. The most optimistic hiring intentions are reported in the Services sector with a Net Employment Outlook of +24%.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
