Local technology and banking hiring to persist in 2019

IT savvy employees are in hot demand due to technological disruptions across all industries.

Local hiring for technology, banking, sales, marketing and change management professionals is expected to remain active in 2019 with competition for top talent forecasted to be fierce, according to Morgan McKinley’s 2019 salary guide for Singapore.

In the accounting and and finance sector, candidates experienced in regulatory reporting are in high demand, whilst banks are increasingly looking to hire trade finance operations specialists. Larger banks are expected to invest more in finance candidates that can engage with senior stakeholders, as well as juniors that show a forward thinking mindset, the firm highlighted.

Also read: Digitally-driven internal auditors to be in hot demand in 2019: report

According to Amy Wilson, finance & operations associate director for banking and financial services recruitment at Morgan McKinley, private equity and real estate firms have been outsourcing their fund accounting work to administrators since the beginning of 2018.

“There will still be fund accounting roles in fund services throughout 2019, however I expected a downturn in fund accounting roles within the bigger fund management firms, as they are slowly divesting their investments or offshoring to low cost locations,” she added.

Risk and security will also remain as key topics for both the IT sector and risk management industry. Following the string of cyber attacks, third party breaches and fraud attacks Singapore has faced in the last year, stronger emphasis on risk management and cybersecurity will underpin Singapore’s hiring landscape.

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“Enterprise risk management has also been seen in a new light, as it gives a broad overview of multiple risk types such as vendor risks, compliance risks, IT asset risk, strategic risk and financial risk,” Bella Phea, senior consultant for banking and financial services recruitment at Morgan McKinley, said. “With the enhancement of regulations and its impact on risk management, organisations will continue to hire with a focus on regulatory risk, conduct risk and often utilise auditors’ knowledge for insights.”

Meanwhile, Morgan McKinley noted that specialists with skills and experience in analytics, applications, data science and the Internet of Things (IoT) will be placed high on the list of hiring managers in the engineering sector as the amount of data the industry works with continues to increase at an exponential rate.

Also read: Digital skills and social media activeness amongst top talent trends for 2019

The report also highlighted how soft skills such as sharing, collaborating and negotiating will continue to be important in order to empathise and interact on multiple levels as people move between roles and experiences.

“Competition for top talent will be fierce and candidates should keep in mind that languages and softer skills will be key competitive advantages,” Morgan McKinley Singapore’s managing director Gurj Sandhu said in a statement. Local talent will also be in high demand particularly in with employers within the sales, banking and marketing industries expressing interest in recruiting and training Singaporeans amidst stricture rules for firms wishing to hire foreign workers.