Market Update Q4 2019 - Pinpoint Asia

Yes, but fortunately, the impact on our business has been minimal
1. We haven’t seen much slowdown in technology hiring. In fact, our clients have been hiring quite actively and even growing headcount numbers during these turbulent times
2. Having said that, we are seeing companies being open to considering Singapore as an alternative to Hong Kong. Some companies have also been trying to lure Hong Kongers into making the move to Singapore
3. Our overseas candidates have expressed concerns about relocating to Hong Kong and an increasing number of expatriate candidates are looking for roles outside of Hong Kong, which is understandable. But, what has surprised us is also the number of Hong Kong returnee candidates who are still interested in/committed to moving back to Hong Kong, even during this time
4. We have seen interviews being affected because of transportation issues which have resulted in some of these interviews being conducting via FaceTime/Skype or WhatsApp
What do we foresee going into 2020?
1. These days more and more companies are essentially becoming “tech companies” and the demand for good tech talent is always strong
2. Assuming the situation in Hong Kong does not deteriorate, we expect technology hiring in Hong Kong to remain strong

The overall ‘hot’ technologies this year were Python, ReactJS, Spring Boot
We observed several companies building their Data Science/Machine Learning teams
We are also seeing an increasing demand for developers with some sort of experience or interest in blockchain
Digitalization has been a major theme among banks, and we observed several of them further accelerating their process of going digital in order to stay ahead of FinTech disruptors

Virtual Banks are expected to come up with new products in the next year which will be very interesting to watch. Standard Chartered Virtual Bank dubbed “Project Dragon” has teamed up with PCCW, CSL and CTRIP which hints at what kind of products to expect.
The Cloud/DevOps space has also created a war for talent with top SRE engineers in constant demand

Hope you found this information useful. Please do contact us should you need more information.

Best,

Vince Natteri, Managing Director

(on behalf of the Pinpoint Asia Recruitment Team)

Hong Kong Office
Suite 406, Tower 2, Lippo Centre
89 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong.

Tel: +852 2375 5000
Fax: +852 2375 5060