Hays, the leading global recruitment expert, today released its 2023 Asia Salary Guide (hereinafter referred to as “the Guide”), which surveyed 10,191 skilled professionals and 3,630 employers from the mainland of China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore, with an aim to understand the salary and talent trends in 15 sectors of interest.
An economic downturn is projected for 2023. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier predicted that one-third of the world economy will be in recession this year.
In Asia, companies have actively prepared to cope with rising operation costs. Particularly for talent strategies, Hays found that recruitment activity and jobs growth were expected to slow, although this will by no means relieve the talent and skills shortage in the region.
On top of that, both employers and employees in Asia are attaching more importance to sustainable development as it has become a global consensus with the mainland of China taking the lead in sustainable development in Asia.
Despite the increasingly complicated business environment, salary and talent demand are in fact increasing in hot sectors in the mainland of China. For example, in the general tech sector, cybersecurity has become the most popular subsector with the greatest pay-raise and talent demand, averaging a RMB 10,000+ monthly salary for all positions while senior cybersecurity architect topping the salary scale at over one million yuan on a yearly basis.
Life sciences, engineering and green industries have also seen significant pay increases. In medical devices, the mainland of China was the only market with pay raise among surveyed countries and regions last year, and its salary competency also topped the chart. China also led the supply chain salary rises. For example, the annual salary for a supply chain manager increased from RMB 240,000 to RMB 300,000, a rise of 25%. There was also a growing demand for talents in green business-related subsectors including new energy, batteries, and materials in China as the nation continued to highlight its promise to fulfil its sustainability goals.
Salary is the key for jobseekers under economic pressure
The Guide found that jobseekers in Asia placed a higher value on salary amidst economic slowdowns. 77% said they intended to leave their jobs for better salaries. Salary satisfaction also emerged as the top motivator for the 61% of respondents who did not intend to switch jobs, compared to 54% in 2022.
Data showed that compared with respondents from other countries and districts, those from the mainland of China put greater emphasis on salary when switching jobs, with 80.5% of respondents expressing their willingness to change jobs for a better salary, the highest percentage among that in five countries and regions. However, only 54.9% of Chinese respondents regarded “satisfaction with salary” as the top reason for staying at their current jobs, ranking last among all areas surveyed.
It indicates that the respondents from the mainland of China are less satisfied with their current salary and thus attach the utmost importance to the package when changing jobs.
Hays predicts that employees’ intent to move will remain high across Asia in 2023, with the number of active jobseekers resuming to pre-pandemic level at an average of 29% of the workforce across Asia. (P7)
According to the Guide, 2023 data reflects about 80% of respondents have the intent to move, a five-year high since 2019. Among them, 27.4% are active jobseekers, lower than the 2023 Asia average but higher than that in 2020 and 2021. (P9)
“Jobseekers’ higher salary demands show that they are more concerned about financial security when choosing jobs amidst the economic downturn. However, with the removal of strict COVID-19 policies, industries are gradually regaining their vitality with the recovery of the economy, and it is expected that jobseekers will subsequently make salary a lower priority when making career decisions. The Guide shows that there are now more active jobseekers in the mainland of China, showing the economic recovery has revitalized the talent market,” says Jessica Wang, Managing Director of Hays China.
In terms of expectations for salary raises, there is a bigger gap between employers and employees in the mainland of China compared with that in other surveyed areas. For instance, 16.5% of employees in the mainland of China expect an increase of 3%-6%, while the percentage of employers with the same expectation was 33.8%. The percentage of employees and employers in Hong Kong SAR with the same expectations were at the same range, which were 27.1% and 26.6% respectively.
When it comes to expectations for a salary increase of over 10%, there was a distinct difference between employers and employees in the mainland of China, which were 6.6% and 46.6% respectively.
“We suggest candidates optimistic about significant salary increases in 2023 manage their expectations. During the economic recovery, enterprises need to adapt to the new situation and adjust their recruitment and talent strategies, as well as their salary structure. Hence candidates will need to view their career from a broader perspective, including work and life balance, work flexibility, and company culture,” Jessica Wang advises.
Continuous learning: the solution to skills shortage
Other than the salary gap and sustainability, another buzz word in the Guide is “skills shortage.” Data showed that more than 50% of the respondents in Asia believed that their skills could use improvement, and only 34% of the respondents were confident in the longevity of their skills. Interestingly, employers and employees have similar thoughts on the key skills to possess and improve.
Across Asia, hard/technical skills, soft skills, and management and leadership training were the top three skills employees indicated as important and which employers valued in the recruitment process across the region. There were subtle differences when looking at individual markets, however. Reskilling to prepare for a different job was more important to 47% of employees in the mainland of China than soft skills training, while digital training for platforms and tools was prioritized by 58% of employees in Malaysia over hard/ technical skills training. Lack of time to devote to skills development was the biggest obstacle faced by employees.
Employers chose communication, problem solving, and teamwork ability as the top three soft skills new permanent employees need. From a hard skills perspective, technical and analytical abilities were on average most important to employers across Asia, followed by presentation skills in Hong Kong SAR and Singapore, and project skills in the mainland of China and Japan.
“Jobseekers need to take the long view on skills development. The survey results indicate that most working professionals understand the importance of continuous learning to remain in demand and to future proof their careers. When planning skills development, jobseekers need to first understand what skills are required in the next 3-5 years. We suggest candidates focus on developing their skills and improving their performance to the utmost to ensure that they stand out when the talent market prospects become brighter,” says Jessica Wang.
For employers, “a tight talent market and the skills shortage may continue to be challenging for employers in 2023,” according to Jessica Wang. “To sustain business growth, employers may consider adapting their talent and workplace strategies to continue to retain their best employees. For roles that are more difficult to fill, employers may then consider leaning on contingency recruitment or outsourcing hiring to a service provider,” she stresses, and “it is critical for companies to reward employees fairly, establish a strong employee value proposition (EVP) and reshape the workplace experience go hand in hand with building a stronger foundation to plan ahead, and attract and retain talents.”
China leads sustainable development, seizing the initiative in post-COVID era
China’s commitment to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 has resulted in unprecedented recognition of sustainable development from companies and individuals.
“Compared to the other Asian countries and regions, China tops the chart for the number of employers who disclosed sustainability goals, reporting progress, and tightening business activities with goals related to climate change and responsible consumption,” says Jessica Wang. “54% of the respondents from the mainland of China rated the commitment of employers to sustainable development as ‘very important’, compared to an average of 29% across the other four markets.”
Data showed that 60% of employers in the mainland of China have implemented sustainability reporting, while the percentage in Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore are 47%, 47%, 54% and 46% respectively.
Besides, 60% of organizations in the mainland of China have connected business activities with sustainable development goals, while the percentage in the above-mentioned areas are 44%, 59%, 57% and 49% respectively.
China’s focus on sustainability has influenced the human resources market. In addition to salary, the commitment to sustainability as an important part of company culture, will influence jobseekers’ impression of companies in the long run, and make employers more attractive to jobseekers and employees.
“As China pivots its development path to sustainable and high-quality model, talents in technology and smart manufacturing will embrace a profound opportunity,” said Jessica Wang, “new energy, battery, materials, green industry, cloud computing, big data, cybersecurity, data privacy, semiconductor, and artificial intelligence are typically promising.”
