SYDNEY, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Financial jobadvertisements in Singapore and Hong Kong jumped more than 30
percent in the past 12 months, while postings in Australia
dropped, with the European debt crisis likely to weigh on hiring
in 2012, a private survey has found.
There were signs that banks have already started to shed
jobs in the region. Credit Suisse, Macquarie Group
and Bank of America have announced rounds of
Asian layoffs.
The report by eFinancialCareers, a leading recruiting
website specialising in banking and finance, said Singapore
showed the strongest growth, up 34 percent from the third
quarter in 2010. It was closely followed by Hong Kong, up 31
percent.
The increase was mostly driven by their proximity and close
ties with China's dynamic economy.
Financial institutions hired aggressively in sales and
marketing as well as risk management, while private banking,
wealth management and retail finance fell out of favour, the
survey showed.
In contrast, Australia, which typically lags behind the two
regional hubs, saw a decline of 1 percent.
George McFerran, eFinancialCareers' head of Asia Pacific
said Australia's marked slowdown, and growing gap with the rest
of the region, was mostly due to firms seeking cost savings.
"Firms are holding up on non-essential hiring, perhaps
seeking to hire new candidates from internal placements rather
than advertising publicly."
Fears of a global financial meltdown, as European debt seems
to spiral out of control, have started to undermine hiring in
the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, with the survey recording a
flat number of ads on its website between April and October.
"The numbers are not as strong as in 2010 due to
uncertainties in the global economic situation," McFerran said.
The survey, the first report released by eFinancialCareers
on a quarterly basis, is based on the number of postings
published on the recruiter's website. As of November 1, it had
931 ads for Hong Kong, 1,070 in Singapore and 421 for Australia.
