A measure of pay rises in Hong Kong's economy shows the banking and financial services sector beating the average for pay rises.

A barometer of Hong Kong’s job market has found that average annual salary gains were 5.1 per cent in the banking and finance sector, while the building, construction and design sectors fared the best, up 7.5 per cent. The banking sector nevertheless saw stronger salary rises than the economy in general.

A total of 2,369 job-seekers were surveyed by jobsDB.com; data was collected through an online questionnaire and details were entered from 2 to 11 March this year.

While the figures do not break down into sectors such as wealth management, the data may be indicative of the general state of pay in this and related sectors in the Hong Kong market.

The jobsDB Job Seeker Salary Report 2015 showed that 65 per cent of respondents received a pay rise of 4.7 per cent on average - an increase that was 1.2 percentage points lower than the equivalent figure last year. The figures showed a high desire to change: some 40 per cent of the employees indicated that they planned to switch jobs, of which 80 per cent expect a pay rise after the change.