88% of commercial organisations to focus on permanent hiring

51% will hire contract employees.

Hiring managers across multiple functions in Singapore’s commercial organisations told Morgan McKinley in its 2013 Singapore Hiring Market Report  that looking ahead to the next six months, 45% of hiring managers anticipate that they will be recruiting without letting any staff go – this was similar to the picture in China, but higher than Hong Kong.

Altogether 82% of respondents expect to be hiring; 37% of these will be reducing their staff numbers at the same time. Despite this mix, there is still a focus on hiring staff on a permanent basis, with 88% of respondents planning this.

The temporary recruitment market is still relatively buoyant, with 51% of hiring managers forecasting that they will recruit for temporary or fixed term contract roles over the next six months.

When asked how they thought hiring activity might change over the next 12 months, 50% said that it will remain similar, whilst, encouragingly, more than a third believe that it will be even higher than the previous 12 months.

This illustrates a degree of confidence in the market greater than that across Singapore’s financial services sector and similar to views of respondents in Hong Kong.