After a few months of frenzied hiring during the summer, jobs postings in Asia ground to a halt last quarter, as economic uncertainty in the West seeped into Eastern hiring budgets.

After a few months of frenzied hiring during the summer, jobs postings in Asia ground to a halt last quarter, as economic uncertainty in the West seeped into Eastern hiring budgets.

Jobs postings over the last three months were muted compared to last quarter, rising just 1 per cent, according to the quarterly Robert Walters Asia Job Index compiled by global recruiter Robert Walters. Many chose to hold off hiring after an expensive second quarter, when hiring postings soared 48 per cent, and in the wake of headcount reviews and budgetary discussions and employees awaiting end of year bonuses.

The index tracks advertisement volumes for professional positions including jobs in sales, property management, law, IT, journalism, accounting and finance. 

“Levels of job advertisements remained largely consistent in the second quarter, with companies choosing to hold off on hiring new staff following a strong second quarter. The financial turmoil in the eurozone and in the US has inevitably had an impact on international companies, particularly in the financial services sector in regions such as mainland China and Hong Kong,” said Mark Ellwood, managing director of Robert Walters Asia in the report.

Accountancy, finance and IT services were heavily impacted as companies delay implementing new systems until there is greater economic visibility.

The number of jobs advertised in Singapore in the third quarter grew marginally by 5 per cent over the year and by 7 per cent from second the third quarter. Most of this growth was buoyed by the medical and legal services, which have seen numbers of job advertisements rise over the quarter by 19 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.

In Hong Kong, recruitment advertising activities during the third quarter slowed down by 2 per cent from the second quarter to the third. Hong Kong's position as one of the world's leading financial services centres means it has inevitably been affected by ongoing global economic concerns. Also candidate confidence levels are muted, with many unwilling to leave current positions to enter an uncertain market, said Robert Walters.

Because of the uncertain economic outlook, companies have reassessed recruitment needs across a range of sectors such as human resources, resulting in the sector seeing a fall of 35 per cent over the quarter. Instead, many companies are turning to external recruitment firms to hire, said Robert Walters. 

In Mainland China hiring was also cautious as companies reviewed budgets. Levels of total job advertisements in Mainland China in the third quarter of 2011 dipped minimally by 1 per cent. This followed the trend in the second quarter when the rate of growth in advertising began to slow from previous levels.

Japan was the clear exception. The Japanese market experienced a significant rebound of over a third in recruitment advertising over the quarter, with international expansion replacing business continuity efforts in the wake of the natural disasters.

The slowdown in sentiment shows that Asia is not immune to the mass culling and hiring freezes across the developed market regions.

An estimated 60,000 jobs are expected to be shed in the latest round of redundancies from the top 50 financial firms. Banks including ABN Amro, Bank of America, UBS, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs have announced thousands of cuts, but most of these will take place in the developed markets where recovery has been slower than the emerging markets, say headhunters, and mainly in sales and investment banking roles.