Hiring expectations weakened in Q3

Compared to Q2, more executives expected to reduce headcounts.

Colliers International reported:

With marginal overall growth momentum, the Hong Kong Purchasing Managers’ Index signaled further expansion in Hong Kong’s private business sector activities.

The HSBC Hong Kong PMI edged up 0.2 points to 50.5 in August 2012 from 50.3 in July. The increase was supported by the rise in output and continuous wage growth, and that underpinned domestic demand.

To the contrary, hiring expectations weakened in 3Q 2012, as 37.7% of the 432 executives surveyed in the Hudson Report planned to increase hiring, down 3.3 percentage points from 41% in 2Q 2012. In addition, 7.6% of the respondents expected to reduce headcounts in 3Q 2012, up from 6% in the previous quarter.

Across five key business sectors, the IT & T sector still showed the highest hiring expectations, with 49.6% of the respondents saying that they will increase headcounts.

Meanwhile, executives in the Banking & Financial Services sector remained cautious in recruiting staff, as 36.7% of them plan to recruit additional staff in 3Q 2012. Meanwhile, the proportion of Banking & Financial Services executives forecasting reduction in headcounts rose slightly from 10% in 2Q 2012 to 10.5% in 3Q.

According to the latest figures released by the Census and Statistics Department, the employment market of the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (“FIRE”) sector weakened in 2Q 2012. The number of job vacancies in the FIRE sector contracted 9.3% YoY in 2Q 2012, after seeing a positive 10.7% YoY growth in 1Q 2012.