Technology
The technology market in Hong Kong has been candidate short for several years. As a result of the pandemic, this trend continued through 2022.
As a result, companies experienced high turnover and difficulty hiring staff and, in turn, had to become more agile to compete for talented technologists; the competition for whom in 2022 was and remains in 2023 at an all-time high.
Key drivers/ regulations
In terms of cyber security, companies continue aligning with the latest industry standards such as NIST, PCI-DSS and ISO 27001, among others. On the other hand, some companies have decided to align themselves with the standards set by the financial sector by referring to the guidelines set by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. This is voluntary, as some commercial firms see financial industry policies as a vital resource for best practices. But, of course, implementing these standards requires much work hence driving up the demand for talent.
Moreover, recent government initiatives to turn Hong Kong into a world-class technology hub have also given rise to an increased number of start-ups that have, in turn, contributed to hiring demand for full-stack engineers, DevOps engineers and offensive security professionals.
To support this, a January 2023 article from the South China Morning Post shared that the “Top Talent Pass Scheme” from the government has seen 1,400 applications approved in seven days. The program will further boost the supply of technology talent in Hong Kong.
Furthermore, in a recent survey conducted by the University of Hong Kong, Cyberport, and the Hong Kong Productivity Council, close to 60% of Hong Kong's firms are actively sourcing for fintech professionals. It also found that the technical roles most in demand included application and software developers, artificial intelligence/machine learning specialists, blockchain/digital currency specialists, system architects, cloud specialists and data scientists.