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Recruiters gear up for another flourishing year in the jobs market

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DECEMBER IS traditionally a low season for job seekers because many decision makers are out of town. As the end of the year approaches, vacancies are usually few and far between and advertisements are rare.

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Last year, however, there was no let-up in job ads or the work of recruitment agencies. The Classified Post had three sections with 72 pages of ads on December 18 and early bookings poured in for this month.

Agencies were busy preparing for another buoyant year and forecasting sustained growth in the employment market.

'The past nine to 12 months have been idyllic,' said Dan Chavasse, managing director of international recruitment firm Michael Page.

'It was an outstanding year for recruitment. There were a lot of candidates wanting to change jobs because they had been in the same positions for several years, and lots of companies wanting to hire.'

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A Nielsen Media survey commissioned by the South China Morning Post found a total of 229,749 positions were advertised in Hong Kong's six major recruitment publications last year.

There was an unusually even spread of jobs throughout the year, with 60,620 and 60,592 posts available in the first and third quarters and 57,352 and 51,185 positions on offer in the second and fourth quarters.

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