Compliance and audit specialists wanted

This latest Asia Job Index index found that, overall, the fourth quarter job ads decline was the sharpest in Singapore at 41 per cent. The current focus on financial regulations drove demand for compliance and audit specialists in Singapore.

The overall total number of job ads placed in the region declined by 15 per cent between October and December 2008.

Hong Kong's overall job ad numbers fell by more than 34 per cent, Japan's dropped by more than 24 per cent, but China's market was more resilient, with job ads falling by only some 12 per cent in the quarter.

Japan's IT-related job ad numbers overall dropped by more than 27 per cent, but "one increasingly discernable trend has been the significant growth in the online marketing industry". The report said that "it is clear that creative skills, in such areas as online marketing and web design, remain very much in demand and the rate of decline was considerably less pronounced."