Volume of Job Advertisements Increases By 1%

Hiring activity in Asia modestly grew in the third quarter of 2015, with the number of job advertisements up 1% from a year ago, according to the Robert Walters Asia Job Index. The research carried out in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and Malaysia, tracking advertisement volumes for professional positions across the leading job boards and national newspapers.

The report finds that the growth of IT and digital as well as steady stream of replacement-based positions continued to drive hiring, particularly for business-critical functions such as legal, compliance, accounting and finance. Despite a slowdown in growth, Asia is still one of the key growth drivers of the global economy and business will continue to expand to tap into the opportunities in the region.

The strong 18% growth of advertisement volume for Engineering was driven by widespread investment in infrastructure projects within a number of Asia’s emerging markets. The demand for accounting and finance professionals also grew as a result of continued expansion of shared services centres and high demand for candidates with strong commercial aptitude who can work as effective business partners. Meanwhile, the advertisement volume for product and logistics operations jobs dipped 13% due to the drop in exports across key markets in the region.

In Japan, the number of job advertisements in Q3 has increased by 11%, which exceeds other markets in the region. David Swan, Managing Director Robert Walters Japan & Korea, said “In the third quarter, the number of job openings in the Japanese market continued to grow, with an 11% increase in comparison to the previous quarter. The number of job openings increased for all the job categories targeted in this survey, and the number did not decline across any job categories. The number of job openings for professionals in Japan overall is continuing to grow”.

Key Findings for Japan:

• In IT sector, demand for programmers continues to be strong this year. In particular, the demand for in-house programmers is strong due to the need to strengthen online businesses in the commerce industry.
• Amidst the growing importance of digital marketing, there is a need for specialists equipped with the requisite knowledge and experience, as well as the ability to execute projects.
• The demand for Accounting, human resources and legal professionals is also strong. In addition to foreign companies entering the Japanese market, and increasing number of Japanese companies are also actively expanding their businesses in overseas markets.