The Impact of Chinese Investment on Recruitment in Cambodia

 For the past 12 years Top Recruitment has been the leading recruitment agency in Cambodia. We are a generalist agency but most of our searches are for professional and managerial roles. With the steady 8% p.a. growth for the past decade we have seen the labour market get increasingly hot in some areas. When a recruiter refers to a hot area of a market they mean an area where certain skills are in high demand so employers do not set salaries, employees do.

For years now, technical skills, engineering skills, and strong sales management skills have been the hottest areas of the market, but since early 2019 we can add Chinese language skills to that list. Today about 12% of our open searches require Chinese language skills and another 6% of searches specify that candidates with Chinese are preferable. We have adapted quickly to this change and Top Recruitment Cambodia itself now has a Chinese speaking senior recruiter.

These changes in the market have happened very quickly and this increased demand has had a big impact on salaries. Today in Cambodia the starting salary for a fresh graduate with little or no experience is around $300/month but the same fresh graduate with strong Chinese language skills (for business purposes) can command at least $500. The same applies all the way up the salary scales, Cambodians who can work in Chinese are receiving nearly double the salary of their peers who cannot. Some of our recent placements of Chinese speaking Cambodian candidates include a Sales and Marketing Director in the beauty products sector earning $4,000/month, a Research Analyst in the e-commerce earning $1,800/month and a Khmer/Chinese translator earning $700/month.

In full: https://www.top-recruitment.com/the-impact-of-chinese-investment-on-recruitment-in-cambodia/