Rush For Hong Kong’s Crypto Licenses Yet To Translate To Jobs: Recruiters

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Hiring executives say cryptocurrency firms may appear to be preparing to enter Hong Kong with unabated excitement, but have yet to find local jobs.

On June 1, about 150 companies lined up for local cryptocurrency licenses that would allow them to operate local cryptocurrency trading platforms. Some reportedly spent up to $25 million to catch this.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Su Wei, managing director of leading recruitment firm Hays, said the industry’s hiring needs are “light at the moment” as exchanges seek to establish a presence in Hong Kong.

“Many Web3 companies are still in the early stages of development, but we expect job openings to increase as they continue to scale and mature.”

In fact, Wei said that her company “has seen a significant drop in hiring requests for technical talent” since the cryptocurrency market plunged.

This was especially true when talent was “mass laid off,” and some were hesitant to work for crypto companies, she said, “because of the volatile nature of the business, which depends largely on the price of cryptocurrencies.” Told.

Similarly, Neil Dundon, founder of crypto recruiter Crypto Recruit, said he was “not very aware of what was going on in Hong Kong.”

“Venture activity is very low right now, even though the rules have changed,” he says. “We feel like we’ve hit bottom, but we expect the trend to pick up from here.”

Managing Director of Michael Page Hong Kong, Olga Yun, also said that despite the government’s recent push, she has yet to see a “significant increase” in people looking for jobs on Web3.

However, Jung noted a “slight increase” in Web3 companies looking for “legal and compliance talent” in mid-to-late Q2 2023.

Talent war is coming

Looking ahead, Kevin Gibson, founder of Web3 recruitment firm Proof of Search, said it could take six months for crypto talent to flood the region as companies wait for license approval. He told Cointelegraph that it has potential.

“Many professionals have left Hong Kong in recent years,” Mr Gibson explained. He said the local talent pool was scarce, Companies moving into Hong Kong “will be embroiled in a fierce war over talent.”

Incorporation in Hong Kong requires the primary role to be a full-time position. Gibson believes the “talent pressure” will continue through 2024, as the Web3 companies “will probably consider moving their headquarters to crypto-promoting jurisdictions if all goes according to plan.”

up to date data The city’s demographics show negative population growth since 2020. statistics We can see that the number of job openings in Q1 2023 increased by nearly 38% compared to the same period last year.

a04258d5 da13 44d9 9994 af37b4cee202 — *Hong Kong’s vacancy rate has shown an upward trend since mid-2021.Source: Census and Statistics Bureau*

Yong added that the main challenge is “attracting talent with an interest in these areas” as many candidates are risk averse given the “current market psychology”.

Related: Hong Kong establishes task force to promote Web3 development

Meanwhile, Neil Tan, chairman of the Hong Kong Fintech Association, said, “I recently met some people who just switched from TradFi to cryptocurrencies.”

Tan said many are being approached directly by cryptocurrency companies, but others are using sites like LinkedIn to find roles.

“TradFi continues to cut headcount every year or two, so stability isn’t always as attractive as it used to be,” Tan added.