Asia’s job market shows signs of revival
Employment rates for Asia have been given a significant boost with 46% of businesses polled saying they are currently recruiting.
For Pakistan, hiring levels are as high as 76% while the Philippines and Singapore are at 49% and 52% respectively, according to Antal International’s quarterly Global Snapshot survey of hiring and firing trends in major employment markets. Slightly less than half of India-based HR respondents say they are currently hiring at managerial or professional level while 48% also expect to hire at the managerial level in the coming quarter.
After a significant drop in hiring levels at the start of the year, 46% of China respondents are currently hiring while 50% expect to recruit in the coming quarter. Sally Li, who runs Antal’s China operations, says confidence seems to be returning. “At least in part, to the Chinese jobs market with hiring levels up from 43% to 46% and organisations expecting to recruit at an even faster rate over the next few months.”
Retrenchments are still an ongoing process for Asian companies though. Around 30% of Chinese companies continue to reduce headcount and 19% expect to cut jobs over the next three months. Furthermore, 37% of India-based respondents are still letting management talent go while 32% expect to release more professionals in the coming quarter.
But Antal’s global CEO Tony Goodwin believes the “period of panic and gloom” is abating even though “the number of businesses expecting to shed middle to senior level staff has remained almost exactly the same”.
Optimism can be found in the fact that the percentage of organisations expecting to hire managers or professionals in the coming quarter has actually risen, says Goodwin, albeit by a very modest 1%. “Recovery may still be a good way off, but it could be that we are now better prepared to pave the way to it than we have been for quite some time.”
Source: Sandbox Advisors, HRM, Antal International
