Hong Kong graduates and employers see a gap of HK$6,641 in salary expectations

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Surveyed graduates most want to work in the HKSAR Government, followed by HSBC Hong Kong, Google, Hospital Authority, MTR, and Hong Kong Jockey Club.

A gap in salary expectations remains significant between Hong Kong graduates and employers, narrowing by just HK$904 from HK$7,545 last year to HK$6,641 this year, according to the latest survey by CTgoodjobs.

Having surveyed 435 fresh graduates and 235 employers in the city through an online questionnaire in the third quarter of this year, the results showed that graduates expect an average monthly salary of HK$24,958, slightly increased by HK$120 from 2023. Meanwhile, employers are willing to pay graduates HK$18,317 per month on average, up 5.9% from HK$17,293 in 2023.

Segmented by industry, the five sectors that are willing to pay higher salaries to graduates are:

Entertainment/leisure (HK$25,000)
Medical/pharmaceutical (HK$20,667)
Banking/insurance/securities/finance (HK$20,643)
Accounting/audit/tax (HK$20,400)
Construction/engineering/building (HK$20,139)

However, 'banking/insurance/securities/finance' (11.8%) is the sector that most surveyed graduates want to work in among 23 industries, followed by 'government/public sector/utilities' (10.5%). Only 2.1% want to join the 'entertainment/leisure' industry.

HKSAR Government continues to be the most popular employers for graduates

Compared to last year, the findings showed that the number of graduates who want to work in the HKSAR Government increased by nearly 20% this year. Those who would like to join government departments (37.4%) and non-governmental organisations (12%) are also increasing. Only 44.5% of the surveyed prefer to join private companies, a drop of nearly 12% from last year.

The companies/organisations that graduates most want to work for are:

HKSAR Government (27.2%)
HSBC Hong Kong (9.2%)
Google (6.4%)
Hospital Authority (4.0%) / MTR (4.0%)
The Hong Kong Jockey Club (3.2%)

From an employer perspective, graduates from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have become the most sought-after talents this year among the 12 universities in the city. More than half (57.1%) of surveyed employers are looking to recruit graduates from this institution, an increase of 14.5% from last year.

The second and third most sought-after graduates are expected from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) (55.4%) and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (50%) respectively, both of which have increased by more than half compared to last year.

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which ranked first last year, has however fallen out of the top three this year, ranking fourth with 41.7% of surveyed employers expecting to hire its graduates, down 11.2% year-on-year.

In terms of salary, employers are willing to pay an average monthly salary of HK$19,332 to the graduates of the HKUST, the highest among the 12 local institutions. This is followed by that being paid to the graduates of the HKU (HK$19,296) and the CUHK (HK$18,535).

Employers are more confident in recruitment

Employers’ confidence in recruitment has seen improvement this year, scoring 6.0 points on average with 0.1 points higher than last year.

Among surveyed employers, those from the 'banking/insurance/securities/finance' and 'accounting/audit/tax' sectors are most confident with both exceeding 7 points. Employers from the 'media/publishing' are the least confident in recruitment, a sharp drop of 2.6 points from last year to only 4.4 points.

Factors that most influence employers’ hiring confidence include: