Singapore hires more expats than Hong Kong

Almost a fifth of expats are employed in the lion city compared to 14% in Hong Kong.

Job opportunities abound for expats in Singapore than Hong Kong as the lion city leads the Asian pack in hiring the most number of foreign workers (19%) whilst only 14% of Hong Kong’s workforce is foreign, according to a press release by Hays.

Despite losing to its close regional competitor, Hong Kong is slowly growing its expat workforce as six in ten employers are willing to hire qualified candidates from overseas markets. It also posts slightly higher figures than the regional average of 13% for the foreign composition of its workforce.

On the other hand, in Japan, 13% of workers are foreign whilst Malaysia and Mainland China are more reluctant as only 10% of employees are expats.

Despite the limited number of employment opportunities for foreigners, expats hail the quality of jobs in Hong Kong compared to gateway cities like Shanghai, according to a separate report.

And this translates to higher monetary benefits as the average gross personal income of expats in Hong Kong at USD148,410 is also significantly higher than the global average of USD99,903 but falls behind Shanghai and Mumbai who offer a mean wage of USD202,211 and USD 217, 165 respectively.