New | Job growth in Hong Kong financial services sector to rise 15 per cent

Job growth in Hong Kong’s highly paid financial services sector is set to jump 15 per cent in the next few years and foreigners will dominate the new hires, a new report from the government’s Financial Services Development Council (FSDC) concludes.

Poor English language skills and the unwillingness of graduates to take jobs in the fast-growing area of back-office compliance are locking Hongkongers out of one of the must lucrative sectors of the city’s economy.

“Overall, the financial sector is going to hire more than the GDP growth rate of Hong Kong,” Joe Ngai, member and convenor of human capital committee of the FSDC, told reporters at the publication of the report which was a year-long in the making.

“Many local graduates have found themselves facing formidable challenge from mainland graduates and international professionals who are better equipped with the necessary skills required by financial firms. Local graduates need to improve their language skills and knowledge to compete or they risk losing top jobs to mainland and expatriate professionals.”

Private banks and insurance companies are driving demand for staff, but the trends in their product offerings towards yuan-denominated business, strong northern demand for buying policies in Hong Kong and the fact that most new stock market listings in the city are done by mainland firms are likely to favour hiring of native Mandarin speakers.

“Many brokers only have analysts on Hong Kong stocks before and now they need to hire new teams to do research on (mainland-listed) A shares after the link up between Hong Kong and Shanghai,” Ngai said.

Shanghai and Hong Kong linked their stock markets under a scheme launched in November. It is widely expected to be the model for a broadening of financial market linkages between Hong Kong and the mainland.