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Sunday 22 March 2009
Out-of-work expats sit out slump at resorts
Expatriate professionals in the city who have lost their jobs because of the recession are putting their possessions in storage and heading off to beaches and low-cost regional destinations to sit out the slump.
Expatriate professionals in the city who have lost their jobs because of the recession are putting their possessions in storage and heading off to beaches and low-cost regional destinations to sit out the slump.
Rather than head home to countries where the financial crisis has hit even harder, bankers and other executives are taking six-month “career breaks” and heading for countries such as Thailand and the Philippines with their families.
Many are handing back the keys to their expensive rented homes and using their pay-offs to kick back in beach resorts or go on extended adventure holidays while keeping tabs on the jobs situation with laptops.
Two major removals companies said fears of an exodus of expatriate professionals like that during the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome crisis had failed to materialise, but they had seen increases of around 100 per cent in storage orders.
Ben Tyrrell, director of Hong Kong removals company Relocasia, said customers were heading for destinations including Cambodia and Nepal, where they could live for a year for what they would spend in a matter of weeks in Hong Kong.
“We’ve got 200,000 cubic feet of goods in store. That has grown from about 120,000 cubic feet in six months,” he said.
“We’ve almost doubled our storage capacity and I expect we’ll have another 100,000 cubic feet by the end of the year.
“People would very much like to stay here. They like the lifestyle here but the Hong Kong lifestyle is very much dependent on a good income. In the absence of that they’re deciding to go away to places like Thailand to do voluntary work or have adventures or to spend more time with their children and see the world.”
Sherry Liu, general manager for the Hong Kong relocations division of Crown, said: “We have seen a pretty steep - dramatic even - increase in the number of quotes we’ve done for storage compared to the December-to-March period last year. It is up 100 per cent. It’s pretty significant.”
Ms. Liu said that while there had been a “double-digit” increase in people leaving Hong Kong altogether so far in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter last year, the increase in storage orders had been far more significant.
“There has been no exodus,” she said. “It’s different from during Sars, when it was fairly scary to stay in Hong Kong and there were more guarantees of jobs back home.
“This time, the likelihood of getting a job as good back home is not great. It’s all fairly even now between London and New York and Hong Kong. There aren’t necessarily better opportunities back home.”
British banker Barry Emmerton, 34, arrived in an HK$8,000-a-month Philippine resort 10 days ago for a career break with his wife and four-year-old daughter.
“We wanted to come somewhere that was easily accessible so if an interview comes up I can get back easily,” he said. “Strangely enough I had a call from a recruiter the morning after I arrived - but I don’t think we’ll be leaving just yet,” he said.
Mathew Gollop, group managing director of executive search recruitment business Connected Group, said: “This happened to a lesser extent in the 2003 downturn. Senior candidates with financial weight behind them disappeared to Thailand and shot back when they needed to.
“The situation is pretty tough just now. If you look at the market from a recruitment perspective it is probably 60 per cent down on what it was last year. One of the biggest problems is that people can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel at the moment.”
1 comment:
Out-of-work expats sit out slump at resorts
Simon Parry
22 March 2009
Expatriate professionals in the city who have lost their jobs because of the recession are putting their possessions in storage and heading off to beaches and low-cost regional destinations to sit out the slump.
Rather than head home to countries where the financial crisis has hit even harder, bankers and other executives are taking six-month “career breaks” and heading for countries such as Thailand and the Philippines with their families.
Many are handing back the keys to their expensive rented homes and using their pay-offs to kick back in beach resorts or go on extended adventure holidays while keeping tabs on the jobs situation with laptops.
Two major removals companies said fears of an exodus of expatriate professionals like that during the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome crisis had failed to materialise, but they had seen increases of around 100 per cent in storage orders.
Ben Tyrrell, director of Hong Kong removals company Relocasia, said customers were heading for destinations including Cambodia and Nepal, where they could live for a year for what they would spend in a matter of weeks in Hong Kong.
“We’ve got 200,000 cubic feet of goods in store. That has grown from about 120,000 cubic feet in six months,” he said.
“We’ve almost doubled our storage capacity and I expect we’ll have another 100,000 cubic feet by the end of the year.
“People would very much like to stay here. They like the lifestyle here but the Hong Kong lifestyle is very much dependent on a good income. In the absence of that they’re deciding to go away to places like Thailand to do voluntary work or have adventures or to spend more time with their children and see the world.”
Sherry Liu, general manager for the Hong Kong relocations division of Crown, said: “We have seen a pretty steep - dramatic even - increase in the number of quotes we’ve done for storage compared to the December-to-March period last year. It is up 100 per cent. It’s pretty significant.”
Ms. Liu said that while there had been a “double-digit” increase in people leaving Hong Kong altogether so far in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter last year, the increase in storage orders had been far more significant.
“There has been no exodus,” she said. “It’s different from during Sars, when it was fairly scary to stay in Hong Kong and there were more guarantees of jobs back home.
“This time, the likelihood of getting a job as good back home is not great. It’s all fairly even now between London and New York and Hong Kong. There aren’t necessarily better opportunities back home.”
British banker Barry Emmerton, 34, arrived in an HK$8,000-a-month Philippine resort 10 days ago for a career break with his wife and four-year-old daughter.
“We wanted to come somewhere that was easily accessible so if an interview comes up I can get back easily,” he said. “Strangely enough I had a call from a recruiter the morning after I arrived - but I don’t think we’ll be leaving just yet,” he said.
Mathew Gollop, group managing director of executive search recruitment business Connected Group, said: “This happened to a lesser extent in the 2003 downturn. Senior candidates with financial weight behind them disappeared to Thailand and shot back when they needed to.
“The situation is pretty tough just now. If you look at the market from a recruitment perspective it is probably 60 per cent down on what it was last year. One of the biggest problems is that people can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel at the moment.”
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