Update: How COVID-19 is impacting hiring in APAC

Published on Apr 20, 2020 Categories: Data and insights, Asia

Today, LinkedIn Senior Economist Pei Ying Chua shared an update about how COVID-19 has impacted hiring in APAC. We’re sharing her full post here as well:

LinkedIn has just released data showing year-on-year hiring trends across the world. Here is the summary of how COVID-19 is impacting hiring in APAC.

SINGAPORE: Hiring hasn’t fallen as drastically as the other countries in this chart. However, it has been on a gradual decline since February, and is now about -10% y-o-y as of 10 April (slightly down from the previously reported rate of -7% y-o-y on 25 March). While the effect of Circuit Breaker measures (closure of non-essential services beginning 7 April) may continue to manifest over the next few weeks, these will likely be offset by the various government stimulus packages and the fact that Singapore’s labour market has historically been fairly tight.

AUSTRALIA: The hiring trend in Australia is similar with the U.S. and U.K., and has been decreasing throughout April. In our previous Australia report, the hiring rate was down -2.8% y-o-y as of 19 March -- it is now around -30% y-o-y as of 10 April. With the recent four-week extension of Stage 3 restriction measures (closure of non-essential services), this downward trend may continue over the next few weeks. This may, however, be counterbalanced by government stimulus packages.

CHINA: There has been a significant rebound in hiring after social distancing measures were lifted, with hiring rising up from a low of -47% y-o-y in late February to -17% y-o-y on April 10. By watching the trends in China, we can get a sense of what to expect in the coming weeks.

We will continue to monitor our insights during this crisis to provide some clarity on the impact to our labour market, and the lessons that we can learn from other countries as economies try to navigate their response.

Previous updates can be found here for Australia, Singapore, United Kingdom, and United States.

LinkedIn data scientist Brian Xu contributed to this article.