More than a quarter, or 27% of companies polled in Hong Kong said they were looking to increase their headcounts, reports the South China Morning Post citing data from Michael Page. In Hong Kong, 54% of companies said they planned to maintain the status quo and 19% said they planned job cuts. Hiring activity in the city fell by 48% last year following the outbreak of Covid-19, but was expected to trend upwards in 2021. “We are already starting to see the early green shoots of a recovery. It's widely anticipated that 2021 will be a better year than 2020,” said Mark Tibbatts, Michael Page's managing director in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Meanwhile, candidates with cybersecurity and software skills are expected to be the most sought after in the financial sector, as banks, insurance companies and brokerages shift more of their services online.

In sectors that were expected to cut jobs, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the city's largest industry body, forecast last month that job losses would continue to worsen in the first quarter after the government terminated its six-month salary subsidy initiative in November. Under the scheme, the government paid up to 50% of employees' salaries, capped at HKD 9,000 (USD 1,160) per person each month, through employers. Tibbatts added that while caution might prevail as the government withdraws some of its support for businesses, “demand for talent is likely to increase through the year as the recovery gathers momentum”.