Asia Pacific pulls international talent

When envisioning a life abroad, as well as a successful career to go hand-in-hand with that life, students are now considering Asia Pacific as their destination due to its reputation of growth and the abundance of job opportunities readily available—just do not ask them to commute.

Over 4,300 students participated in a global study to understand their preferences in pursuing an international career upon graduation. Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore are APAC’s leading cities and have been ranked fifth, eight and tenth respectively in the Top 10 most attractive international cities to work in.

The USA still attracts more

Despite Asia being the world’s largest growth market, Universum’s International Mobility Benchmark showed that when offered an attractive job, talents still consider the United States the most attractive country and “The Big Apple” the most attractive international city to work in.

APAC top 10

Australia and Japan are the two countries in the Asia Pacific region that made it into the top 10 most attractive countries to work in at the third and ninth positions.

Rise of the urbanite

The most important feature contributing to the attractiveness of a place to live in was the availability of job opportunities. Respondents to the study also considered culture and entertainment and proximity to family and friends as key considerations. Interestingly, good social welfare was the next most important feature to job opportunities when considering China as an attractive country to work in.

Money talks

Relocation is a relatively big decision to make in one’s career and the most fundamental criteria to consider would be a job or role aligned with their career goals, or if the location to which they would move to was also inherently attractive to them. Without exception, a higher salary would be the greatest motivator and having paid trips to their home country would further contribute to the motivation to relocate.

Family still anchors

When asked how long students were willing to commute for work, the average daily time was 70 minutes with women being less willing to commute. Having the ability to spend as much time as possible with family or friends is still a top priority for these soon-to-be graduates.

Joakim Ström, Universum’s Managing Director—APAC, Universum said, “While cities like New York and Hong Kong remain attractive for international talent to relocate to for their careers, the woes of commuting in some of them can be frustrating. Employers should remember that work/life balance is the Number One career goal among these millennial talents, regardless of men or women. Employers who don’t consider creative or flexible approaches to address such concerns among their workforce would only stand to lose in the long run”.