Hiring Trend │ Manufacturing

The ongoing shortage of the most in-demand bilingual professionals in several key sales, engineering and supply chain specialisms will drive salary increases of up to 20% during 2016.

AUTOMOTIVE

We saw an increase in demand for engineers with skills across the consumer electronics and telecoms industries as car manufacturers continued to develop next-generation technologies for connected and driverless cars. This is a trend that we expect to accelerate in 2016 and beyond, as market readiness approaches. The high demand for automotive expertise drove salaries up by 5-10% in 2015, and we expect a similar rise to take place in 2016.

INDUSTRIAL

The need for bilingual sales, marketing and engineering professionals will further outstrip supply in 2016, as the number of available positions grows significantly faster than the talent pool. As a result, salaries for the best talent will continue to grow by up to 20%. As new Internet of Things, machine-to-machine and wearable technologies grow in demand, engineers harnessing hardware and software expertise will be increasingly required. In Osaka, the positive economic outlook will continue to drive hiring for technically-minded bilingual sales engineers in 2016. As companies seek to build market share, proven salespeople will be highly sought after throughout 2016.

ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE

We saw salary inflation during 2015 for on-site civil engineers, a trend that we anticipate will continue throughout 2016 and beyond. The emerging solar industry competed for talent across the full range of organisational roles, in a trend that’s set to gather pace as the industry grows. Developers who can initiate new projects will be increasingly popular hires during 2016.

CHEMICAL

Hiring activity across the chemical sector was relatively buoyant during 2015. An increased number of foreign multinationals entered the Japanese market, creating new demand for specialist professionals. There was a key shift in focus during the year from manufacturing chemicals to lifescience chemicals, including personal care and pharmaceutical ingredients as well as agrochemicals, leading to an increase in demand for sales and engineering professionals with experience in ingredients and related areas. In particular, R&D and technical services were in the highest demand. This was also reflected in the shift from commodity production to specialist research and development in high-value, speciality chemicals. As a result, companies are increasingly seeking specialist scientific talent.

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