32.1% of Singapore bosses expect to increase headcount

Echoing the first half of the year, hiring sentiment in the next six months of 2015 in Singapore is expected to be cautious.

According to the latest The Hudson Report: Employment Trends, hiring is expected to be 'steady', as overall recruiting intentions dip slightly but some sectors show sustained growth.

A net 32.1% of local employers state they plan to increase headcount, a slight decrease of 4.9 percentage points (pp) from the first half of 2015,

The report attributed to this prediction as being reflective of a "wait and see" approach.

“While we are seeing certain sectors such as ICT and professional services showing strong net hiring sentiment, in other sectors we are seeing companies focus on keeping their headcount lean as they enter the second half of the year,” said Emmanuel White, regional director, Hudson Singapore.

Indeed, the report found hiring intentions for the information and communication technology (ICT) sector remain strong, with more than half (55.3%) of employers looking to increase headcount in H2 2015.

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This percentage was found to be the strongest hiring sentiment in the ICT sector in four years. The sector has also seen a 2.9pp increase in hiring intentions since H1 2015.

"We are currently seeing a demand for IT solution sales roles, a trend driven by specialised IT vendors that are new to the market and have developed technology in areas such as big data, cloud solutions, business intelligence and security solutions," White stated.

Other sectors with relatively strong hiring intentions included the professional services sector and healthcare and life sciences sector with 43.6% and 34.3% of employers intending to increase headcount respectively.

The healthcare and life sciences sector saw the highest increase of 8.7 pp from H1 2015 while the professional services sector increased by 2.5 pp.

On the other hand, the report found that the banking and finance sector has the largest decrease when it came to expected changes in headcounts.

The sector reported hiring intentions of 14.3 pp, with only 21.9% of employers stating they are intending to increase headcount.

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