Overview of some of the sectors during Q3 2022

Crypto and Investment Banking Technology

Hiring within technology at the crypto firms definitely slowed down during Q3 2022. This was even before talks of Singapore rolling out crypto trade curbs.

The war for tech talent (especially at the senior level) has gone up a notch with Singapore introducing the One Pass (5-Year EPs for high earners) and Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee touting the importance of developing Hong Kong’s innovation and technology business to “grab talent” in his first policy address.

While we have certainly observed many Hong Kong-based companies either also starting up in Singapore or moving IT talent to Singapore from Hong Kong, there has been no dearth of IT jobs in Hong Kong. Citadel was even adding office space in Hong Kong.

Banking Technology

There was a seasonal slowdown in tech hires. C++/Python/Java/Full Stack developers have been in demand in a very tight labour market. In Hong Kong, it has been because of the exodus of talent into the UK and other countries whereas, in Singapore, it was because of the need for companies to prioritize hiring Singaporeans or PRs over foreigners. This, however, has begun to change as EP rules have eased a lot in Singapore.

Java has been the most sought-after technical programming language with the majority of programming roles looking for someone with strong Java coding skills.

Overall, we expect the tech market in Asia to continue to grow and expand for the rest of the year and the beginning of next year.

Insurance Technology

We noticed an acute shortage of Architects (Enterprise/Solution/Cloud) in Hong Kong. This was either due to the emigration of Architects into other countries or Architects from Insurance leaving to join tech behemoths and Cloud Service Providers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. There was a very high demand for these skills, not just in Hong Kong, but also in Singapore, the UK, Canada, and the US.

Commerce Technology

Hiring, in general, was picking up although the market has had a pessimistic view of the economy. E-Commerce, Mobile, Digital, ERPl, and Data Analytics are still the major drives for demand in the commerce space.

Hope you find this information useful.

Best,
Vince Natteri, Managing Director
(on behalf of the Pinpoint Asia Recruitment Team)