Recruitment activity in Hong Kong’s Financial Services Sector has seen a decline of 23% in the number of job opportunities in Q3 of 2012 compared to Q3 of 2011. The statistics, released by eFinancialCareers in its Q3 2012 Job Barometer, also suggest that APAC overall has experienced a decline of 16% over the same period.
Despite the slowdown, a small amount of conservative expansion has kept the job market buoyant in the last quarter. Comparing Q3 of 2012 with Q2 of 2012, APAC job opportunities fell only slightly by 2%. Singapore was the only market registering growth, with a modest 1% increase over the period. In comparison, job opportunities in Hong Kong and Australia decreased by 5% and 6% respectively.
The Barometer also revealed that capital markets, insurance and risk management were the top three performing sectors in the regions, with quarter-on-quarter growth of 30%, 23% and 19% respectively.
George McFerran, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, eFinancialCareers commented, “The last 12 months have taught us that even with the support of China as a major growth engine, Hong Kong is not immune to the redundancies that have swept through global financial services. With a slowdown in economic growth and a transition of political leadership expected for Mainland China, Hong Kong firms are taking a conservative approach to hiring with a focus on highly specialised positions in growth sectors such as capital markets, insurance and risk management.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
