# Finance job ads for Singapore, HK had strong year



## WonderLust (Nov 24, 2011)

SYDNEY, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Financial job advertisements 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.


----------

