Hong Kong Covid-19 restrictions may hit staff retention and hiring climate
Hong Kong’s Covid-19 crackdown may reportedly hurt staff retention and the ability to hire more employees in the global financial hub.
The city has maintained Beijing’s tough ‘zero-Covid’ stance on the virus, despite cases surging over the past few weeks.
“The evolving Covid-19 restrictions in Hong Kong, including travel, public gathering and social distancing restrictions, are impacting the Hong Kong economy, and may affect the ability to attract and retain staff,” the lender said today, according to Reuters.
However, chief financial officer Ewen Stevenson confirmed to Bloomberg that the bank was not having issues with staff retention or hiring itself.
It echoes what Standard Chartered chief executive Bill Winters said last week – that the city’s travel curbs could bruise its status as a financial hub in the long term – and what JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon noted in mid-November, at the beginning of the Omicron wave.
The financial hub has some of the world’s most stringent Covid-19 measures, which has pushed a number of corporate expats to consider leaving the city.
Daily infections have spiked, topping 7,500 on Monday, a figure which has more than doubled in just a week.
“So far, our measures to contain the spread of the disease remain legitimate and valid,” leader Carrie Lam told reporters last week.
“The problem we are facing is given the magnitude, the pace of and the severity of this fifth wave,” she added. “It has outgrown our capacity.”