APAC Economic Commentary - April 2024

This commentary builds upon LinkedIn's Global State Of The Labour Market newsletter, with additional details on APAC-specific data and commentary.

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Hiring shows signs of stabilising; hiring momentum differs across industries

The LinkedIn Hiring Rate (LHR) continues to decline, but at a less rapid rate compared to the past 1-2 years. Australia and Singapore showed a 5% and 14% decline year-over-year respectively, the smallest decline over the past 18 months for both countries. India showed a 7% decline year-over-year, the smallest decline in 21 months.

At the industry level, we also look at changes in hiring momentum to understand how the pace of hiring is changing in different industries.

• In Australia, we see an upswing in Technology, Information and Media, as the sector begins recovering from the lows of the recent months. Meanwhile, the Government Administration has high job postings growth but hiring momentum seems to be slowing, suggesting a challenge in filling open roles.
• In India, we see an upswing in Real Estate and Equipment Rental Services, possibly driven by a booming property market. Meanwhile, the downswing in Oil, Gas, and Mining may be related to oil demand slowing across the globe.
• In Singapore, we see an upswing in Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain and Storage, possibly related to increased need for logistical support as manufacturing increases across South-East Asia. Meanwhile, the Accommodation and Food Services sector, which grew rapidly in the past few months, now shifts towards equilibrium with a downswing.

AI At Work: Summary of APAC trends from the latest 2024 Work Trend Index (Annual Report from Microsoft and LinkedIn)

While the majority of business leaders believe their company needs to adopt AI to stay competitive, many also worry that their organisation’s leadership lacks a plan and vision to implement it.

• Australia: 80% believe their companies need to adopt AI; 70% worry their organisation lacks a plan and vision.
• India: 91% believe their companies need to adopt AI; 54% worry their organisation lacks a plan and vision.
• Singapore: 83% believe their companies need to adopt AI; 68% worry their organisation lacks a plan and vision.

While leaders feel the pressure to turn individual productivity gains into organisational impact, employees aren’t waiting to reap the benefits. Many employees are bringing their own AI tools to work (BYOAI).

• Australia: 78%
• India: 72%
• Singapore: 84%

AI has also changed talent requirements and career development, and the majority of business leaders would prefer to hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills than a more experienced candidate without them.

• Australia: 79% of business leaders would prefer to hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills.
• India: 80% of business leaders would prefer to hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills.
• Singapore: 77% of business leaders would prefer to hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills.

Amidst all of these change, the future of work is becoming intertwined with the future of learning, and a skills-first mindset is critical. Companies should adopt a skills-first approach to hiring and developing talent. This will help them remain agile, and be able to pivot when they need to. At the same time, professionals should maintain a growth mindset, seeking out opportunities to learn and apply new skills.

Methodology:

LinkedIn Hiring Rate (LHR) - This analysis looks at the year-over-year % change in hiring rate, which is a measure of hires in a given time period divided by LinkedIn membership. If the change is less than 0%, this means that hiring activity is lower than it was at the same time in the previous year, and vice versa.

Industry Momentum: An upswing industry is defined as the industry with the largest increase or smallest decrease in the 6-month average of the LinkedIn Hiring Rate over the last 6 months, i.e. from November 2023 to April 2024. Conversely, a downswing industry is defined as the industry with the smallest increase or largest decrease in the 6-month average of the LinkedIn Hiring Rate during the same period.