Driven by data center companies’ plans to expand into Hong Kong, the talent demand in the city is all set to rise in the fourth quarter according to the 2015 Manpower Employment Outlook Survey (MEOS).

The survey released today indicated that local employers are positive about their hiring plans in the upcoming three months.

Almost one in five (19%) of 785 employers surveyed says they plan to beef up their talent in the fourth quarter of 2015, while only 3% predicted decreases in hiring.

Three quarters of those polled (75%) anticipated no changes to their current employment rosters for the rest of the year.

After removing seasonal variations,  the city’s net employment outlook stands at +15% same as last year.

The net employment outlook was defined as the percentage of companies planning to increase staff levels minus those laying off staff.

The report highlighted the service sector, was found to have the strongest net employment outlook among the six major industries of Hong Kong (+28%).

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“Talent demand in information technology (IT) is strong especially with a number of leading data center companies expanding here, which boosts hiring activity in the service sector,” said Lancy Chui, vice president, ManpowerGroup Greater China Region.

“Moreover, the extensive implementation of big data requires security services to protect customer data and, as such, a wide-range of professionals across cloud technology and information security are in demand, particularly at junior- and mid-levels,” she added.

Driven by the demand for housing, local infrastructure development also continued to kindle hiring plans of employers in mining and construction sector, with employers reporting a net employment outlook of +21%.

With an average of more than 20,000 proposed housing starts ever year, demand for construction workers is strong.

“Couple this with urban renewal projects and hiring is further accelerated in this sector to complete construction projects,” said Chiu.

In addition, the survey found employers in the finance, insurance & real estate sector continued to report favourable hiring goals with a net employment outlook of +19% for the upcoming quarter.

Recent news on the downturn of the property market had some employers taking a wait-and-see approach. Chiu observed that the workforce is still expanding in property agencies, but hiring demand has become steady compared to the past few months.

Slowed by the recent slump in retail and tourism, employers in the wholesale & retail trade sector reported cautious, yet optimistic hiring intentions for Q4 2015, with a net employment outlook of +9%.

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