Media hiring rates hold steady as economy turns

The pan-Asian survey of companies in five industries found that the number of companies in media, PR and advertising expecting to hire staff is falling, but not as fast as in other sectors.

Singapore is expected to be the most illustrative example of the wider Asian trends, with 51 per cent of media/PR/ad firms expecting to hire in Q3, down from 52 per cent in Q2. In contrast, the banking and finance sector’s hiring expectations dropping from 53 per cent to 43 per cent.


Karen Kwan (pictured), director of sales and marketing at Hudson, said: Unlike banking and finance, advertising, PR and media have to run lean operations at all times - so they simply don’t see the same peaks and troughs in their hiring, even though, as service industries, they tend to follow the wider economic trends.

In Hong Kong, 43 per cent of the media/PR/ad companies were expecting to hire in Q3, down from 56 per cent in Q2. The territory’s established banking and finance sector dropped from 59 to 47 per cent, though this seems stable compared to the IT and technology sector, which has seen its expected hiring rates drop 32 percentage points in the last quarter.

China is the only exception, as the huge demand and talent shortage in the banking and finance sector pushed hiring expectations from 57 per cent in Q2 to 64 per cent. In the media/PR/ad sector, 54 per cent of firms expect to hire, down from 55 per cent in Q2.