You're hired! Get ready for the biggest job boom in a decade

Banking jobs will be in hot demand, but healthcare is still lousy; find out which jobs offer the best prospects and the highest pay.

According to a survey of 400 key decision makers in business sectors across Singapore and Asia by recruitment firm Hudson, 51 percent of Singaporean employers said they intended to up their headcount over the next quarter. This figure is a spike of 34 percent from figures posted in Q4 2009. Only 4 percent of respondents in the latest survey say they will intend to make cuts on headcount this quarter.

The survey was built on the premise that employers’ expectations of an increase or decrease in staffing levels represent a significant indication of their level of optimism in the growth of their organisation and their industry as a whole.

Hudson CEO Mike Game, Asia, says: “Employment expectations show a further substantial rise this quarter and the recovery looks well-established. Companies are focusing on employee engagement measures in an increasingly competitive market.”

Who wants workers?

Expectations are rising in every segment except Healthcare & Life Sciences.

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The sectors who are posting the greatest increase in hiring expectations are banking and financial services (69 percent of employers) and IT and technology (60% of employers).

In fact, expectations have risen in all sectors surveyed except the healthcare and life sector, in which only 30 percent intended to increase staff numbers, a fall from the last quarter’s 44 percent.

This sector has also posted the highest percentage of employers wanting to makes cuts to staff. In a note, Hudson says the reason is Singapore is now feeling the effects of multiple mergers following attempts to expand the industry, and companies want to consolidate before expanding. The one bit of hope healthcare professionals can hang on is their bonuses, as the industry has highest proportion employees posting that their organisations will pay bonuses.

Big, bigger, biggest: where are all the bonuses coming from?

Elsewhere across other industries, 74 percent of respondents across all sectors planned to pay discretionary year-end bonuses for 2009.The level of bonus payments is also much higher than a year ago, with 50 percent of employers expecting to pay year-end bonuses of more than 10 percent. This figure was only 28 percent the previous year.

(Click here to see figures)

Those surveyed from the banking and finance sector plan to pay the highest bonuses, offering much more than they did last year. Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) say that bonuses will be over 10 percent, while 35 percent say they will pay more than 20 percent.

Employers: We’re in this for the long haul

(Click here for figures on how companies plan to keep employees)

As for engaging employees, companies are intending to step up strategies to hire the best candidates, with more companies planning to develop strategies for employee engagement and talent retention. Generally, leadership, mentoring schemes and training programmes are seen as the most valuable measures, being mentioned by 29 percent. This may not be such good news payroll-wise, as increasing employee salaries and bonuses is not yet the seen as the top strategy for retaining talent. Singapore ranks lowest in terms of proportion of those wanting to increase salaries. This suggests that employers still viewed other employee engagement methods over salary increment.

Let your money do the talking

Despite the figures, Singaporean job seekers still can look forward to better pay prospects. Most employers also responded that they expected to have to pay higher starting salaries to attract new managerial hires. Across all sectors, only 8 percent say they would pay no increment at all, while 42 percent expect to have to increase starting salaries by more than 10 percent to recruit the candidates they want. This compares with 34 percent who forecast increases of more than 10 percent when this question was asked in Q1 2009.

In general, most companies are increasingly optimistic about company performance in 2010. Across all sectors, 14 percent anticipate excellent performance, a higher proportion than in the other markets surveyed in Asia. A further 64 percent say performance will be good, while just 2 percent think it will be poor.