The last quarter of 2010 saw a 31.3% decline in legal job advertisements in Hong Kong and a 20.4% decline in ads placed in Singapore, according to the Robert Walters Asia Job Index for Q4. In Hong Kong total job advertisements in the lawyer/solicitor/barrister/compliance officer category fell from 5,783 to 3,975; in Singapore ads dropped from 2,498 to 1,988 in the same category.

Consultants published in the report attributed the decline to a number of firms, particularly within the finance sector, filling their headcount quota earlier in the year. This occurred during the heightened recruitment activity over November and December in Hong Kong and Singapore. The report said that the decline in ads is in line with expectations due to the need to protect bonus pools and avoid unnecessary costs.  Disappointment following trading updates by some organisations may have also dampened hiring enthusiasm in Q4, according to the report. 

Mark Ellwood, managing director for Robert Walters Asia, said law firms – are looking to performance-related pay and headcount assessment for the next year when deciding whether to advertise. In general he said “optimism is high going into 2011 and we expect to see increased movement in the market as we progress further into the year.”

However, Singapore and Hong Kong’s decline is in comparison to a 267.9% increase in legal job ads in Japan over the last quarter and a stable result seen in China, which reported a 2.3% fall in the number of advertisements. The staggering result in Japan was due to a surge in restructuring and M&A activity on the back of a strong Yen, which requires a significant amount of legal support. David Swan, managing director for Robert Walters Japan, said: “In Q4 we have seen a considerable rise in recruitment advertising activity across most sectors, but particularly the financial sector as confidence continues to return. The impact of this is particularly evident when considering the significant increase in IT services, legal services and human resources, all of which directly benefit from the increased activity within financial services.”

Overall the decline in legal job advertisements wasn’t seen as negative, and was set against a backdrop of significant growth in job ads for other important sectors such as IT. Continued prospects for growth across the region, as well as in China’s capacity for economic growth, were also highlighted in the overall results.