Industry Job ads head south

• Industry job ads in steep decline
• Hong Kong worst hit
• Sales roles see some sunshine
  

Regional - Job advertisements for the marketing and advertising industries has taken a hit across the region as a natural fallout of the slowing employment market, with Hong Kong being the worst-affected market compared with Singapore and Japan, according to Robert Walters.

According to latest figures revealed by Robert Walters, the total number of job advertisements placed in Q4 of 2008 across the region declined by 15% between October and December. In the art/design/creative sector job ads fell by 38.3% in Hong Kong and by 29% in Singapore, during the same time. For advertising/marketing the dip stood at 34.2% for Hong Kong and 33.3% for Singapore.

In the same period in China art/design/creative jobs dropped 16.4% and in Japan they went down 30.5%. In advertising/marketing the fall was 19.6% in China and 16.1% in Japan.

Robert Walters claims the considerably steeper decline in Hong Kong is reflective of its greater exposure to the global financial services industry, which saw much reduced recruitment activity in the final quarter of the year.

"The effects of the global economic situation are clearly being felt in Hong Kong, but we are still experiencing demand for personnel whose skills can save or generate money for their employers. A similar trend was seen in Singapore. The main focus for employers has been on sales related roles," Matthew Bennett, director at Robert Walters Hong Kong, said.