Singapore tops for expat living

Singapore had been ranked the best place to live in the world by expats in one of the biggeset international surveys of expatriate living ever conducted.

The Expat Explorer survey for HSBC Bank International found that as well as coming out tops overall, expats rated Singapore best for quality of accomodation and second in terms of luxury living.

Hong Kong, ranked fifth, scoring high for earnings and savings. In fact, Hong Kong based expats were found to have the highest salaries in the world, with almost half earning more than GBP100,000 ($269,800) a year.

The top courntries for savings included Singapore, alongside the UAE and India.

source: TODAY

Singapore: Hiring slows down in second quarter

21/July/2008

HIRING by Singapore companies is slowing down as firms tighten their belts amid rising operating costs and margin pressure, say recruitment agencies.

This cautious approach is in stark contrast to the enthusiastic hiring seen a year ago and experts say the pullback is most evident in the finance and manufacturing sectors.

'Companies in general have become more conscious of their fixed costs,' said Robert Half International managing director Tim Hird.

'We have observed that our clients have become more selective and more cautious in their hiring, rather than imposing total freezes on hiring altogether,' he said.

The sector identified by recruiting firms as having suffered the biggest slide in hiring is investment banking.

But there are pockets of growth within the financial services sector - commodity houses, insurance firms, private equity firms and hedge funds - that are 'still hiring strongly', Mr Hird pointed out.

Another affected sector is information technology (IT), which has seen a 20 per cent fall in hiring.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

Highly skilled IT professionals, but paid enough?

ZDNet Asia conducted a survey on the Internet between late-2007 and early-2008, to gain insights into Asia's IT workforce and salary trends.

The survey drew 21,635 respondents from various industry sectors such as government, healthcare, IT, services, telecommunications, legal and finance, and across seven Asian economies: Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Findings from the ZDNet Asia IT Salary Benchmark Survey 2008 reveal an IT field that is dynamic and has high skill sets, with salaries that are, in most cases, attractive. The survey indicates that IT remains a desirable and interesting profession, and one that has much to offer its practitioners and those who employ them.

The best-paying IT jobs are in Hong Kong, followed by Singapore and Thailand.

The study found that IT professionals from Hong Kong had the highest overall average annual salary at US$57,303. Singapore came next at US$44,858, followed by Thailand, where respondents had an overall average salary of US$24,108 per annum.

On average, Hong Kong respondents had 8.9 years of experience--the highest across the seven countries. They are followed by Thailand's respondents who have an average 8.8 years of experience, ahead of Singapore's 7.5 years.