Recession to squeeze hiring expectations

Singapore - A Hudson Survey reveals that expected hiring plans in the manufacturing sector will see the greatest drop to 43% in the second quarter of the year compared to 61% in the first should a recession occur.

This sector has seen a spike in hiring in recent quarters and a drop in expectations is not unexpected, the survey said.

Mark Sparrow, Singapore country manager of Hudson said hiring expectations are dropping slightly after staying up at a high level for a long period across all sectors surveyed.

When it came to the possibility of a recession, he said most respondents do not forecast an imminent recession, though they say any recession would affect their hiring plans.

The survey found that hiring expectations are expected to suffer a slight drop from 51% last quarter to 49% in the second quarter of 2008 in the event of a recession.

Across all sectors, most respondents are not anticipating a possible recession in Singapore. However a high rate of 38% respondents from the manufacturing industry think otherwise due to export of high-value goods. If a recession is ever to occur in Singapore, 81% predicted that the manufacturing sector will be affected.

Overall, Singapore is the only market surveyed where retention is seen as a more critical challenge than recruitment. Fifty percent of respondents cited retention as the most critical challenge for the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing companies in Singapore tend to be in niche market areas and have to retain staff with specialist skills.

In the event of a recession, 84% of manufacturing companies are most likely to consider freezing headcount as a solution to deal with the economic downturn, the survey said.