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Survey Finds the Employment Market in Accounting & Finance Sectors Cautious But Steady
In the Accounting & Finance Market Survey 2008 conducted by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Hong Kong and Michael Page International, 36% of responding employees say the overall accounting and finance job market is 'No Change' at present. The same percentage of responding employees say it is 'Getting Worse', which reflects a degree of caution with the finance profession. However, 54% of responding employers say the demand for accounting and finance staff will remain the same.
The Accounting & Finance Market Survey 2008 aims to identify the salary trends, job change trend and talent retention strategies in the accounting and finance sector. A new section is added to this year's survey to identify the mobility needs and trends of today's accounting and finance professionals. The survey was conducted from 19 August to 16 September 2008 and received over 1,330 responses from ACCA Hong Kong members, ACCA approved employers, and clients and candidates of Michael Page International.
EMPLOYMENT MARKET OVERVIEW
Current Job Market
While 36% of responding employees say the overall accounting and finance job market is 'No Change' at present, an equal percentage of responding employees say it is 'Getting Worse'. Only 25% of respondents believe it is 'Good' and 'Getting Better' which marks a fare more cautious approach than was represented in last year's survey.
Among the responding employers, 54% say the number of accounting and finance staff will remain the same in the next 12 months, with 29% employers who responded to the survey say they will need to recruit more accounting and finance staff within the next 12 months.
Kelly Chan, President of ACCA Hong Kong acknowledges the cautious recruitment market but the demand for accounting and finance professionals remains steady. "Accounting professionals are equipped with a wide range of technical expertise and the supply of such professionals is still lagging behind the demand. We expect the market will have a higher demand for talent with control focus such as internal audit or internal control under the current market situation."
Anthony Thompson, Managing Director, Hong Kong & Southern China of Michael Page International says, "Organisations in different industries and sectors always need well qualified accounting and finance professionals irrespective of the economic environment. Asia is still viewed as a growth region and employers are less likely to change their recruitment plans drastically."
Salary trends and expectations
Both employers and employees report salary rises in 2008 and predict this increasing trend will continue in 2009. In 2008, 29% of responding employees had "1%-5%" salary increment and 27% had "6%-10%" increment. Same as last year, there are 9% of employees who responded say there was "more than 30%" increment.
For the coming year, 64% of responding employees expect salary will increase and it is a 22% lower than last year's survey result. However, 81% of responding employers say they are expecting to pay more in 2009.
JOB CHANGE TRENDS AND TALENT RETENTION STRATEGIES
In this year's survey, 79% responding employers received resignation letters from their accounting and finance staff in the past twelve months, 5% higher than last year. Among this group of employers, 69% of them could successfully retain up to 10% of the resigned staff, 1% higher than the result in 2007.
Forty-six percent of responding employees say they have been actively searching for a new job in the last twelve months. This year, 40% of the responding employees received new job offer in the last 12 months, which is 10% lower than last year's result. Among those who received job offers, over half of them (54%) claim that they received two to four job offers, with 42% of them received one offer. 30% of these employees who received new offers have an average of "1% to 10%" pay rise and 32% have an average of "11%-20%" pay rise compared to their current or previous jobs, similar to last year's result.
"Offer a pay rise and/or better fringe benefits" continues to be viewed as the most effective staff retention strategy by employers, followed by "work-life balance" and "offer a clear career progression pathway" as the top three effective retention strategies.
Whilst in the employees' survey, "remuneration package" is ranked second among their job change decision factors, with "good career prospect and exposure" continues to top the list. "Job promotion" is ranked third which is the same as last year.
TRAINING AND MOBILITY
In this year's survey, we looked at the training support that employers provide and employees received. Most of the responding employers say they provide cash subsidy for courses and examinations to their employees, however, less than half of the responding employees mention that they received such support.
"We recommend employers talk to their staff about their training needs and determine if there are any ways in which resources could be better allocated. Continuing professional development and training is crucial for accounting and finance professionals especially in a challenging economic and business environment," states Mr Thompson.
In order to continue to gauge the market needs, a section on mobility of accounting and finance professionals has been added to this year's survey to track the need on the mobility of such professionals. There are 65% of the responding employees say they are required to travel for business in general with a different range of duration. 90% of responding employers say their accounting and finance staff need to travel for business outside Hong Kong at least for once or twice a year in average. 55% of responding employers say their accounting and finance staff travelled to Greater China most frequently.
"Flexibility in terms of mobility, such as willingness to travel for business is becoming a factor that employers nowadays find important. Enhancing the mobility to travel as well as equip with a global qualification such as ACCA and international perspective help accounting and finance professionals take on a broader role in their career development," says Ms Chan.
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