A Star Ferry Co. vessel, owned by Wharf Holdings Ltd., sails across Victoria Harbour in front of the Hong Kong island skyline in Hong Kong, on Aug 5, 2019. (PAUL YEUNG / BLOOMBERG)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong managers are increasingly finding job opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area appealing in the challenging year of 2021 compared with previous years, according to KPMG's latest annual report on employment trends.

In its fifth year, the Hong Kong Executive Salary Outlook 2021 was published on Tuesday.

Among the 702 business executives interviewed, 549 of whom identified as working or living in Hong Kong, 65 percent expressed willingness to relocate to other Bay Area cities for work, compared with 61 percent in 2020 and 52 percent in 2019. The top motivations behind the eagerness include better career and industry prospects, travel convenience, broader work exposure, higher income, company’s business needs and lower costs of living, in the order of decreasing relevance. The most attractive Bay Area cities are Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Macao.

In 2021, the sectors that most respondents continue to predict will create the most job opportunities in the Bay Area are innovation and technology (63 percent), financial services (37 percent) and professional and consulting services (33 percent).

Taking into account an increasing interest in working from home revealed in the survey, Murray Sarelius, partner and head of People Services at KPMG China, reckons that it will be more tempting if people can remain in Hong Kong while working for mainland corporations, given the challenges of crossing the border and necessity of quarantine at the moment.

“With a development plan in place for cities cross the GBA, talent is more willing to be mobile within GBA cities,” says Sarelius. “GBA subsidies to align individual income tax rates between Hong Kong and other cities in the GBA are helping to alleviate the financial barriers to mobility.”

Despite the bright jobs outlook in the Bay Area, the overall reaction toward the salary review was flat, with 54 percent of respondents saying that their salary remained the same in the year 2020, compared with 20 percent in the 2019 report

However, Sarelius says, “As individuals and businesses gain confidence in the implementation of the incentives and their requirements, we expect non-monetary factors to become even more prevalent.”

Hong Kong has played the role of gateway to the Chinese mainland and as an access point to overseas markets. Therefore, people who have been working in Hong Kong acquire international perspective and experience, which gives them a leg up when it comes to working in the Bay Area, he says.

Their English proficiency is also a plus when working with the international business community, he adds.

Despite the bright jobs outlook in the Bay Area, the overall reaction toward the salary review was flat, with 54 percent of respondents saying that their salary remained the same in the year 2020, compared with 20 percent in the 2019 report. Another 6 percent reported a salary decrease last year. Thirty-six percent of respondents reported receiving no bonus in 2020, more than double the percentage in 2019.

The report suggested a diminished expectation for salaries in 2021, with only 43 percent of respondents anticipating salary increases compared with 60 percent who held similar expectations at the start of 2020. In addition, 71 percent of respondents foresaw similar or lower bonus levels than received in 2020.

The city's finance executives got the city’s biggest bonuses in 2020, defying a pandemic that saw more than a third of respondents miss out on their incentive payments, according to the survey. Finance workers got annual bonuses equivalent to 2.83 months’ salary in 2020 while real estate came in second place with 2.16 times. 

Under the climate of economic uncertainty, employees appear to be more concerned about stability and work pressure than career progression. Interest in job security has increased among senior manager or manager level employees, with 26 percent of Hong Kong respondents in 2021 naming this as a key factor in initiating job searches compared with 19 percent in 2020. There was also an increase in the emphasis placed on workload and work pressure by department heads or equivalent (24 percent in 2021 compared with 12 percent in 2020).

READ MORE: HSBC's Asia bankers do better than peers after bonus pool cut

Work flexibility was a criterion that employees and job hunters valued most, with 61 percent respondents stating that allowing work from home arrangements would make a job position more attractive to them.

When it comes to pay forecast, the reaction is generally gloomy in the survey, with only an average of 43 percent of respondents anticipating a bigger paycheck in 2021, a stark contrast to 60 percent in 2020

When it comes to pay forecast, the reaction is generally gloomy in the survey, with only an average of 43 percent of respondents anticipating a bigger paycheck in 2021, a stark contrast to 60 percent in 2020.

Michelle Hui, director of Executive Search and Recruitment Services at KPMG China, says, “Most key professionals expect to remain at a similar pay range as the previous year. Generally, employers have tightened their headcount and salary budgets through a number of approaches.”

ALSO READ: Rupert Murdoch gives up bonus after News Corp posts US$1b loss

However, there’s a silver lining notable in the innovation and technology sector, with 53 percent of the respondents convinced of an increase in salary in this sector.

“There’re a number of factors playing in this phenomenon,” says Sarelius. “One is the growth of the industry per se, the other being the demand for the digital and technology skillset in the age of automation and digitalization … And the digital and technology skills have enabled work flexibility for a long time.”

“The innovation and technology is obviously a big push in the Bay Area,” he concludes. Whether there will be outflow of people moving to other Bay Area cities after the border is opened depends on “the reopening of travel length” and the possibility of people being hired permanently in a certain location other than with their employers,” says Sarelius. For example, if one is hired by a Shenzhen company but is permitted to work remotely in Hong Kong, that will be very attractive.

With inputs from Bloomberg