Employers across Hong Kong are planning to hire more staff in 2023 with 43.9% of employers planning to recruit more staff, up from the 41.8% who reported hiring more staff in 2022, according to research from Hays.

Hays’ research found that Hong Kong staff levels in 2022 saw slower growth than anticipated. In 2022, while 41.8% of employers in Hong Kong reported hiring more staff, this was below the initial projection of 44.6%.

According to Hays, the salary expectation gap between employers and employees is still prominent in Hong Kong, as most employees expect to increase between 3%-6%, whereas employers only plan to increase up to 3%. This gap remains a key deciding factor for employees to leave a firm as Hays’s research found that 80% of employees in Hong Kong are willing to leave their jobs for better salaries. 

Salary satisfaction also emerged as the top motivator for almost 70% of respondents who did not intend to switch jobs.

Sue Wei, Managing Director, Hays Hong Kong SAR added, “It is crucial for employees to proactively bridge the salary expectation gap by rewarding their employees fairly in order to retain their talent in such a competitive market. Employees want to see their performances to be acknowledged and properly rewarded; employers can easily benchmark their packages against competitors through salary guides.” 

Hays also noted that the accelerating digital transformation across all industry sectors has driven the demand for Hong Kong tech talents in Hong Kong. Industries including banking and finance, accountancy and finance audit, risk and compliance, HR, and insurance are advancing at faster pace. In turn, they are on the lookout for talents who can bridge the gap between business and IT with specific skills in data and management.

The data showed that 68.6% of employers value technical skills in terms of hard skills in Hong Kong.  Survey findings also backed the still fierce competition in the sector as salary increments reach up to 30% for tech talents such as software engineers and DevOps engineers.