There has been a continued demand for high quality talent in Singapore during the first half of 2014, according to the H1 2014 Market Trends & Salary Report Singapore from Australia recruitment firm ambition.

Paul Endacott, Managing Director for South East Asia for ambition, commented: Singapore maintains its position as the regional hub of choice, certainly for SE Asia, if not for APAC, with existing organisations continuing their growth in the region. With new companies looking to expend into these markets, the trend looks set to continue.”

“However, whilst the demand for talent remains high, recruitment processes have certainly slowed in 2014, versus previous years. This can be put down to a number of factors. The Fair Consideration Framework is certainly one, and provides a clear focus to ensure the local Singaporean talent pool is fully considered before appointments are made.”

He continued: “The second is the cost of running operations and putting, or keeping, roles in in Singapore. This means that when a role comes up in Singapore, there needs to be sufficient reasons for that position to be located in Singapore and going through that justification means that the process takes longer. We have also begun to see a trend with some organisations looking to redeploy roles from Singapore (or other high cost Asian locations) to markets like Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is a trend that may continue as organisations look to control their cost base in this rapidly growing region.”

“Our view is that Singapore will still continue to see demand for high quality talent as, despite the cost, it is still the location of choice for a company to headquarter its region operations and is strategically, economically, and politically well positioned to capitalise on the evolution of the SE Asia markets,” Mr Endacott concluded.

Evolving regulations continue to have a big impact on recruitment within the Banking & Financial Services market in Singapore. As such, there has been a significant increase in recruitment for various banks into the “Control Groups”, which includes Risk, Compliance, Legal, Oversight, and Audit functions. Due to a shortage of local talent, more banks are now opening up to conducting global searches for such skilled professionals.

The temporary / contracting market in Singapore continues to rapidly develop and grow across all functions within the Banking sector. There has been a larger focus on Finance and Operations recruitment across junior to mid-management levels. There are many different reasons for the growth in this space, including location strategies (to support both Business As Usual (BAU) or project work) and the difficulty in getting permanent headcount approval.

The demand for high calibre Finance & Accounting professionals has been consistent in the first half of 2014, with competition at the junior level being more intense. Mid-sized high growth businesses continue to drive demand with new hubs in Singapore. There is consistent demand for candidates with strong finance and business transformation/process re-engineering experience, and this is expected to continue.

Hiring demand within the Marketing and Corporate Communications area in Banking & Financial Services was slow at the beginning of 2014. This can be attributed to the amount of change and restructuring going on in these sectors. However, this seems to have lifted somewhat with organisations now in a position where they are clearer on structure and strategy, and this has resulted in an uplift in numbers of opportunities across all levels. This trend looks set to continue through till the end of the year.   

During the period, cost cutting and driving efficiencies remained operational priorities for most organisations, which resulted in strong hiring patterns within Supply Chain & Logistics. Increasing needs from businesses to mitigate risk and ensure supply lines are effective has led greater focus on supply chain management.

The need for Technology professionals in the Banking & Financial Services industry has been relatively consistent. Whilst the permanent hiring of Technology professionals in investment banks has been limited due to right sizing projects and budgetary constraints, this has led to an increase in demand for contractors to fulfil project commitments and providing a more flexible work force.

To read the full report, please click here.