Hong Kong’s financial services sector could boost hiring by as much as 15 per cent next year, fuelled by buoyant capital markets and growth in assets under management, according to a global recruitment agency.
The surging equity markets in Hong Kong and mainland China had boosted revenues and budgets for hiring investment professionals and traders, said John Mullally, managing director for Hong Kong at Robert Walters.
The jobs market would be “more functional”, with hiring across the financial services sector likely to rise by 10 to 15 per cent in 2026, though it would remain below the levels seen a few years ago, he said. “It’ll be slower but steadier.”
Hong Kong’s finance and insurance industries employed about 268,000 people in the second quarter of this year, an increase of 4.5 per cent from a year earlier, according to the Census and Statistics Department. That tally is still short of a record 287,800 in 2021 before it dropped to 261,000 in 2024.
Mullally said his firm had seen an uptick of about 20 per cent in live roles coming to market in recent months, compared with the first quarter. “But that hasn’t translated into a similar rise in offers [as] confidence is still lacking.”
Some banks rushed to hire in 2021 and 2022 only to make redundancies soon after, resulting in a more cautious stance now, he said. Banks were also prioritising cost efficiencies and savings, leading to a higher bar to finalise a hire, Mullally added.
