According to recruiting executives, despite the entry of crypto businesses appear into Hong Kong, no local jobs have yet resulted from this activity.
On June 1, some 150 organisations lined up to apply for a local cryptocurrency license that allows the operation of a local cryptocurrency trading platform. Some reportedly paid as much as $25 million to acquire one.
Although exchanges have been looking to establish a foothold in Hong Kong, Sue Wei, managing director of significant recruiting firm Hays, stated that the industry’s hiring needs “are light as of now.”
Although many Web3 businesses are still in their development phase, we predict that as they grow and mature, there will be more opportunities.
Wei claimed that since the crypto market fell, her company had experienced a “major drop in demand for hiring technical talent.”
This was especially true when talent was “laid off en masse,” which made some people cautious of working for a crypto firm “due to the fragile character of an industry that relies primarily on the prices of crypto,” she said.
Similar to this, Neil Dundon, the creator of the crypto recruiter Cryptorecruit, claimed that he hasn’t “really seen much activity in Hong Kong.”
Even though the restrictions have changed, he noted, there is now very little venture activity. “Even though it seems like we have reached the bottom, I anticipate this to begin trending upward from here,” the author said.
Michael Page Despite the government’s recent effort, Olga Yung, managing director of Hong Kong, claimed she hasn’t noticed “a huge rise” in job seekers for Web3 positions.
Yung did observe a “slight uptick” in Web3 companies looking to hire “legal and compliance hires” in the middle to late of Q2 2023.
The infusion of crypto talent may take six months, according to Kevin Gibson, the creator of Web3 recruitment firm Proof of Search, as companies wait for licence approvals.
According to Gibson, “a sizable quantity of talented people has left Hong Kong in the last few years.” Companies moving to Hong Kong “will find themselves in an extreme war for talent,” he claimed, citing the limited availability of local talent.
In order to operate in Hong Kong key positions must be filled on a full-time basis. According to Gibson, a “talent squeeze” will last until 2024 as Web3 firms “will likely seek shifting offices to a pro-crypto country if things go according to plan.”
The city has experienced a negative population growth rate since 2020, according to the most recent demographic data. According to employment statistics for Q1 2023, there are about 38% more openings than there were at the same time last year.
Yung noted that the biggest problem is “acquiring talent with an interest in these industries” because a lot of applicants are conservative amid the “current market sentiment.”
The FinTech Association of Hong Kong’s chair, Neil Tan, claimed to have “met many individuals who just recently shifted over from TradFi to crypto.”
Tan claimed that although some are contacted directly by cryptocurrency companies, others look for jobs on websites like LinkedIn.
Tan continued, “TradFi keeps cutting headcount every year or two, so the security is not always as alluring as it once was.”
