Hiring Heat Map: Guess what job roles are hot in the financial sector

Banks are likely to freeze hiring except for some job roles.

Macroeconomic uncertainties here and abroad have impacted the hiring trend in the financial sectors, accroding to hiring recruitment agency Kerry Consulting.

Key impacts include the following:

 Head office politics have led to some foreign institutions to reemphasize on home markets away from Asia, or in other cases, unclear strategies on how to reallocate scarce resources amongst key  Asian business centres. This has resulted in the investment in strategic  hires only to let them go for non-performance reasons.
 Expatriate packages are no longer common. Most expatriates prefer to  stay in Singapore rather than return home; this translates to less  backfill opportunities for replacement hires
 Rotation of seconded expatriate staff from head office is being  reviewed to enable more head office talent to gain experience in Asia
 Some senior managers have been asked to take a pay cut. This is  usually acceptable where there is limited alternative opportunities
 HR has risen in influence (which is typical at times of cost  containment); line managers are better at toeing the line against  initiating hires without prior HR approval.
 Focus on internal mobility programs and internal resourcing capabilities  to save on external hiring cost.
 Voluntary (offered over a limited window period) and/or mandatory  redundancy programs are offered by some institutions.
 Some long-time employees (ie. >8 years of service) are holding on to their jobs in anticipation of a generous redundancy pay-out. This in turn  limits the flexibility of the business from hiring new headcount.
 There are concerns against making career moves amidst a landscape  of structural changes especially when the salary premium-to-move has  fallen as companies are keeping a closer eye on costs .