by Chuang Peck Ming

SINGAPORE -Singapore's tight labour market is easing as fewer employers plan to step up hiring in the July-September quarter and job-hopping becomes less rampant.

But the asking salaries of new managers being recruited are not falling - at least not yet - with the softening of the economy, according to leading executive recruitment firm Hudson.

'The responses suggest that there has been little impact so far,' Hudson says in a report of the poll results.

Yet there is no mistaking the fact that more employers are showing restraint in hiring staff here.

Hudson's latest poll shows only 43 per cent of the 768 executives polled here intend to increase their payrolls in the third quarter, the lowest percentage in at least three years.

The comparative figure in Q2 was 49 per cent and in Q3 2007, it was 54 per cent.

'Hiring expectations are falling from the high levels seen in recent years as the global economy slows,' said Gina McLellan, Hudson's country manager in Singapore. 'Many employers are seeing a fall in staff turnover but there is little sign of any reduction in asking salaries for new managerial hires.'

The cut-back is seen most starkly in the consumer sector where under a third - 32 per cent - of the employers are looking to hire more staff, down from 49 per cent in Q2.

More employers are also scaling back expansion plans for recruitment in the banking & financial services sector (down from 53 per cent to 43 per cent) and the information technology & telecommunications sector (down from 46 per cent to 42 per cent).

The numbers held more or less steady in the media, public relations (PR) and advertising, and manufacturing sectors.

Only in the healthcare & life sciences business are employers still upbeat about hiring. The number of those intending to grow their headcounts jumped from 41 per cent in Q2 to 53 per cent in Q3.

According to the Hudson report, the growth in hiring in the sector is driven by Singapore's rapid expansion as a regional healthcare business hub, which has led to a demand for specialist staff.

But overall, the economic condition calls for caution in hiring. Managers looking for jobs seem largely oblivious to the situation as there is no let-up in their asking salaries.

Only one in 10 of employers polled can get their new managerial hires to lower their asking pay, according to the report.

In the media/PR and advertising business, 15 per cent - the highest number for all sectors - of those polled succeeded in persuading new managerial recruits to lower their salary expectations. At the other extreme, only 2 per cent of bosses in the manufacturing sector could hire managers at a lower pay than what they asked for.

Still, employers who got the managers to accept the job at a lower asking pay could not go far enough. 'The responses suggest that employers' scope for negotiating lower asking salaries is limited,' Hudson says.

The situation may soon change.

'Across all the sectors surveyed, 34 per cent of respondents have seen a decline in staff turnover rates over the past year,' the Hudson report says. 'This is the second highest figure of the markets surveyed in Asia, after Japan.'

The report adds: 'The decline suggests that candidates may be more careful about switching jobs in the current economic climate but also that many are content in their current positions after a period of frenetic hiring activity and staff movement in recent years.'

This article was first published in The Business Times on July 25, 2008.