Recruitment firms have drawn flak from several companies for being overly optimistic in their employment surveys, according to a Channel News Asia report.

The statement was in response to several recruitment firms’ projection that 2007 will be a year of higher salary increases and bonuses for employees in Singapore.  

However, some recruitment firms Human Resources spoke to say their surveys are only representative of the HR practitioners surveyed. 

Hudson’s Singapore country manager, Mark Sparrow, said its most recent quarterly Hudson Report reflected the responses of 650 key decision makers over various industries in Singapore. 

He said while the report appears to suggest that employers are responding to a “tight candidate market”, clearly, not every company in Singapore will respond this way. “It merely depicts a trend.”

General manager of Manpower Staffing Services Rosa Goh said their trend question, “Are talent shortages causing your organisation to pay higher salaries/compensation for professional positions as compared to a year ago?” garnered a 55% nod from 685 Singaporean employers, who said that they are paying higher wages for the same position. This question was asked as part of Manpower’s quarterly Employment Outlook Survey in the fourth quarter of 2006.  

Sparrow also corrected the perception that optimistic reports bring good news for recruitment firms. “If the employers’ and employees’ expectations are not aligned, it actually makes our job very difficult.”