Survey says employers in Hong Kong intend to hire more people in quarter

Financial news

Written by: Zhang Weilun

2020-03-10 15:55

Hong Kong's economy has fallen into recession since the second half of last year. At the beginning of this year, it was even more troubled by the Wuhan pneumonia epidemic, prompting Hong Kong companies to adopt a more cautious approach when recruiting staff. Manpower Group released the results of the second quarter employment outlook survey, showing that employers are expected to be weak in increasing staff numbers in the coming quarter.

This survey involved 440 employers, of which 7% of the respondents indicated that they intend to hire more staff in the coming quarter, 7% of the respondents indicated that they would reduce their staffing, and 83% said that they would remain unchanged. This is the lowest outlook index for ten years and reflects employers. Recruitment confidence has fallen.

The survey also showed that employers ’confidence in recruiting in the service industry has weakened sharply, the lowest level in 16 years. Financial, insurance, real estate, and wholesale and retail industries’ recruitment intentions have also slowed to the weakest level in 10 years.

Xu Yushan, senior vice president of Greater China at Manpower Group, pointed out that the adjusted seasonal unemployment rate has risen to 3.4%, reflecting the weakening of the employment market due to the economic environment. It also pointed out that the epidemic has hit many industry activities, especially catering, retail and Tourism and other related industries.

She also expects that the labor market will be under pressure in the short term and believes that employers can formulate better plans such as voluntary pay cuts and freezes to maintain operations.

Recruiting Hong Kong Economic Unemployment Rate