Dive Brief:

• As the war for talent in Asia gets more heated, employers are increasingly relying on job advertisements to help them recruit the right candidates.
• According to the Robert Walters Asia Job Index for the first quarter of 2015, there was a 22% growth in job advertisements in Q1 2015, compared to the same time period in 2014.
• The greatest change in job advertisements came from the legal and compliance industry (38%), followed by the accounting and finance industry (29%), the IT industry (19%) and the HR industry (8%).

Dive Insight:

Matthew Bennet, managing director, Greater China of Robert Walters, said the firm observed a strong level of hiring activity in the first half of 2014, and recruitment activity in Q1 2015 had remained relatively steady compared to the same time last year.

Hong Kong, with an overall growth of 2%, saw a 8% increase in demand for HR professionals as companies continued to employ talent acquisition specialists to help them build stable and effective talent pipelines. An increase in importance of the HR function in the country also bumped up the demand for HR professionals by 10%.

“Looking ahead, we expect to see an uplift in hiring activity in Q2 as bonuses are being paid out and the holiday season comes to an end," Bennet said.