Average salary increment stood at 1.3% in Q1

Around three quarters of job seekers are considering a career change.

Overall salary adjustment is 1.3% in Q1, which is significantly lower than last year’s 5.1%, according to the JobsDB salary survey report. In addition, only 50% of 4,000 employees surveyed have received a raise in salary this year, a 20% drop when compared to last year.

Moreover, 40% of respondents reported a salary freeze, whilst 75% of respondents have negative views on the employment outlook and are actively seeking alternative options.

The retail and tourism sectors have faced a challenging time with a pay drop of 8.9% and 8.1%, respectively. Over 30% of respondents across both industries also indicated that their salary has been cut.

Meanwhile, 76% of job seekers are open to switching job functions, especially employees in the hospitality and tourism (26%), customer service (20%), and general management (20%) sectors. On the other hand, employees in information technology (IT) and analytics have recorded the highest salary increment, at 6.1% and 5.8%, respectively.

In addition, the survey found that 27% of job seekers confirmed they are looking for positions in different sectors, with nearly 20% saying they wanted to change job functions as prospects in their current industry are getting worse.

The survey also noted that 75% of respondents hold a negative view on the employment outlook in Hong Kong due to possibilities of local recession due to socio-economic situations (78%), uncertainties around the external environment (67%), and foreseeable closedown of local companies (61%).

Because of these, 30% of job seekers and employees are willing to switch to a company with better job security, whilst 19% of employees and 32% of job seekers wish to switch to another job function or occupation with better job security or greater demand in the market.

The softening of the job market has led to 64% of employees revealing that they took less than 2 months in making the decision to change job function, whilst 35% took at least 3 months for consideration. Over 7 in 10 or 73% of respondents with work experience between 3 to 5 years had a higher incidence of salary increase when switching careers, followed by those with 6 to 10 years of experience (62%).

Considering the cautious economic outlook, 46% of job seekers expect their job hunt will take 3 to 6 months, an increase of 8% compared to last year, versus 31% who expect to find a new job within 2 months.

The survey further noted that 42% of job seekers and 25% of employees are willing to work part time or freelance, seeing this as a flexible solution for both job seekers and employees given that full-time job openings have been significantly reduced.