The 2017 Q4 results of the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey indicated that for the next three months Hong Kong employers report upbeat hiring plans. With seasonal variations taken into account, Hong Kong’s Net Employment Outlook is up 17%.
Hiring prospects are the strongest reported in six years, improving by 2 percentage points when compared with the previous quarter and by 5 percentage points when compared with this time one year ago. 20% of the 790 employers surveyed forecast an increase in staffing levels in Q4 2017, while 3% predicted a decrease. 76% of overall employers surveyed anticipated no employment changes in Q4 2017.
The healthy hiring pace is expected to continue in 4Q 2017 in Services sector, with employers reporting a Net Employment Outlook up 21%. Hiring plans remain relatively stable when compared with the previous quarter, and improve by 3 percentage points when compared with this time one year ago.
Lancy Chui, Senior Vice President, Manpower Group commented, “The marketplace is showing signs of entering into a digitisation era across different industries, transforming itself to be higher tech and data driven, stepping up to the increased global competitiveness by the development of financial technology (Fintech). This has placed added pressure on an inadequate information technology (IT) talent pool within Services sector.”
To keep up, we are seeing employers bring in talents in the areas of data analysis, cloud computing, apps development positions within the Services sector. Chui noted, “As such, we expect job seekers will continue to benefit from the positive hiring sentiment. With the Asia- Pacific region representing the world’s most targeted area for cyber attacks, organisations are facing an even more complex challenge, not least IT security issue. Cyber attacks not only threaten financial institutions and banking systems but also different enterprises, so we’re seeing increased interest in reinforcing cyber security roles to minimise the chance of being attacked and the leakage of sensitive data.” As such, concerns over cyber security are clearly having an effect on cyber security roles hiring, thus bringing a knock-on effect on hiring activities in Services sector.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
