HIRING CONFIDENCE FINANCE SECTOR
Singapore - Singapore is seeing a significant increase in job advertisements, with growth for both finance services and commerce sectors projected to sustain throughout the next quarter.
There is a 13.7% rise in job ads across all sectors in the second quarter of 2010, compared to 217,140 ads recorded in the first quarter, according to the latest Robert Walters Asia Job Index survey. This is close to a 40% increase from 177,020 job ads tracked during the same period last year. While the merchandising and purchasing sector saw the most significant increase in recruitment advertisements at 30.7%, it is predicted that both finance and commerce sectors would experience sustainable growth.
Andrea Ross, managing director of Robert Walters Singapore, said this is because the hiring confidence in these two sectors is likely to remain high over the next three months. But there may be a slowdown at the end of the third quarter due to the seasonal stagnant job mobility as it would be approaching the bonus payouts for financial professionals, said Ross. Overall though, Ross is positive that this trend of growth will continue because the availability of job opportunities in both financial services and commerce sectors are now at its peak since pre-crisis levels. She likened the employers' confidence levels in these sectors to those of 2006/07.
There is also a 7.8% increase in human resources positions with many companies having started hiring, implementing succession plans and commencing on projects. There is, however, a slight decrease in job ads in the IT sector. According to the survey, the drop could be due to how the IT function has moved from a support role to that of a business partner within a company. Hence, senior IT roles could be a combination of IT specialist and business partnering. Ross said, ""A noticeable increment would be on the contract opportunities that exist for both IT and non-IT functions, with contract lengths ranging from 6-12 months, as companies start to favour a more flexible workforce."
Regionally, sectors with the most noteworthy increases in job ads were IT and HR. Japan saw a 19.5% increase while Hong Kong had a 10.4% rise in advertisements recruiting for IT positions. As for advertisements in HR jobs, Hong Kong saw a 7.8% increase while Japan had a 24.8% increase in the second quarter this year, compared to the first quarter.
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