Summary

The labor market in Hong Kong has been active since 2010 with a relatively high percentage of companies intending to hire staff compared with 2009. Job seekers may find it easier to change jobs, and fresh graduates can get their first job with the pay as good as or even better than last year.

Having subsidiaries in the mainland is common for Hong Kong companies, and is expected to be a trend as more than half of the companies plan to expand their subsidiaries or set up a new subsidiary in the mainland. However this may not bring any benefit to the labor market in Hong Kong because about a quarter of companies said they would employ less staff in Hong Kong while expanding their mainland subsidiaries.

In managing the mainland subsidiaries, most employers have no preference in hiring mainland or Hong Kong staff. According to employers, the strength of mainland staff is their knowledge about the culture and system in mainland, while the strength of Hong Kong staff is their management skills. In order to increase competitiveness, Hong Kong staff should acquire more knowledge about the various systems in the mainland and learn more about the culture there.