Salary raises drops 2.2% for second consecutive year

Property & Real Estate and Public, Civil and Social Services lead in salary increments.

Hong Kong’s average salary increase of 2.2% marks a decrease of 1 percentage point from last year, continuing the decline for the second consecutive year, according to a report by Jobsdb.

More than half (52%) of the respondents received salary raises, but the proportion dropped by 5 percentage points.

Property & Real Estate (+3.9%) and Public, Civil and Social Services (+3.2%) lead in salary increments.

Meanwhile, Analytics, which was last year’s front runner in increases, experienced a significant decline of 4.1 percentage points. Other job functions that previously enjoyed salary growth, such as  Engineering and  Information Technology, also saw significant declines this year.

Moreover, 47% of employees expressed pessimism about job prospects, a significant 11-percentage-point increase compared to last year.

Job loss jitters have also been prevalent, with 74% of employees expressing job loss concerns over the past 12 months.

The main concerns were economic downturn in Hong Kong  (47%), economic downturn in the region or globally  (31%), and economic instability in my industry (26%).

Despite 48% full-time employees acknowledging below-average salaries, many choose to stay in their current jobs, citing concerns over job security (34%).