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SINGAPORE, March 12, 2012 – Robert Walters, one of the world's leading specialist professional recruitment consultancies, has launched its Asia Job Index for Q4 2011.
The Robert Walters Asia Job Index tracks advertisement volumes for professional positions across the leading job boards and national newspapers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China, Korea and Japan.
There was a seasonal dip in job advertisement levels in the last quarter of 2011 in the run up to the festive period and year-end budget reviews. Total job advertisements across the region fell by 3% from Q3 to Q4 2011.
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Singapore: Contract hires increased toward year end
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There was a 10% decrease in job advertisement levels from Q3 to Q4 2011
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Companies chose to postpone job hiring until after the festive period
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The conservative global economic climate has led employers to increasingly look toward hiring contract professionals in sectors such as HR and operations in order to reduce costs. This tended to be done directly which resulted in a fall in job advertisements of 11% and 12% for each respective sector
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Within the private sector, particularly within banking and finance, hiring continued to be weak as many international banks made redundancies and imposed hiring freezes
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However, the increase in public sector projects looks set to fuel recruitment activity in the coming months, particularly within construction and industry
Hong Kong: Recruitment activity fell in line with seasonal trends
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Job advertisement levels fell by 14% from Q3 to Q4 2011
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Recruitment advertising in sales and business development fell slightly by 3% as companies sought to maintain revenue generating positions to meet the demands of tourists still visiting the region from the mainland
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Levels of job advertisements in property also slowed in conjunction with the fall in property loan approvals in 2011
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This resulted in a 13% drop in advertisements for professional positions in real estate
Malaysia: Increase in medical sciences recruitment activity
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There was a rise of 16% in medical advertisements to meet growing demand. Healthcare professionals were sought-after as the life and medical sciences sectors continued to grow.
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However, job advertisements in Malaysia declined by 11% from Q3 to Q4 2011.
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Advertisements for banking and finance professionals continued to decline as Malaysia felt the effects of global economic uncertainty. These advertisements fell by 12%.
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On a positive note, international business continued to look at Malaysia as a potential location for shared service centres
China: Growth in niche areas despite cautious market sentiment
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Recruitment levels in IT services rose by 13% as companies continued to recruit for this niche area, requiring more sophisticated types of IT functions to meet growing demand
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Overall levels of job advertisements in China fell by 3% from Q3 to Q4 2011 indicating a seasonal reduction in line with expectations of this time of the year
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Companies were keen to cut costs and recruitment levels within advertising and marketing –non-revenue generating functions of most organisations – declined by 13%
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Nevertheless, Chinese companies continued to grow with year-on-year growth in job advertisements of 20% from Q4 2010 to Q4 2011.
For more comprehensive details and figures for each specific country, refer to the Asia Job Index attached or download the full report from www.asiajobindex.com
Methodology
The Robert Walters Asia Job Index tracks the number of job advertisements on a daily basis across the executive appointments sections of key newspapers and leading online job boards in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. In China, job opportunities are largely advertised online via job portals and as such, the index will only track online job advertisements for this market. For a complete listing of the publications and job boards included in our findings, visit: http://asiajobindex.com/methodology.html
About Robert Walters
Robert Walters is an award-winning business and one of the leading international recruitment consultancies. The Group has a network of 47 offices spanning 23 countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Continental Europe, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, South Africa and Brazil. For more information about Robert Walters Singapore, please visit www.robertwalters.com.sg.
The Global Salary Survey
The Robert Walters Salary Survey provides an in-depth analysis of salaries earned around the world by both permanent and contract workers across a wide range of sectors. The Singapore section covers the following sectors: banking & financial services, accounting & finance, engineering, HR, IT, legal, sales & marketing, secretarial & support as well as technical healthcare.
A full copy of the Robert Walters Global Salary Survey can be downloaded from www.robertwalters.com.sg/salarysurvey.
The Robert Walters Salary Checker App
Employees now have a way to check how much they are really worth with the free Robert Walters Salary Checker iPhone app.
Drawing on data from the Robert Walters Global Salary Survey, the Salary Checker App contains a database of salaries and contract rates by role and sector. Using GPS technology, the app automatically recognises the location of the user, who can then simply choose their professional discipline and job title to generate their current market rate.
The Salary Checker App is free to download for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users from the iTunes app store.
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