The job market is vibrant and vacancies have increased in the past year, especially in the financial sector, but Hong Kong is facing a shortage of qualified talents, an online recruitment portal said yesterday.

Monster Hong Kong Vice-president Suk Chiu said 58,000 job vacancies were posted on his website in 2006, an yearly increase of 104 per cent.

Vacancies in the banking and finance sector had increased by 56 per cent, with those in banks and accounting/audit firms rising by 28.45 and 102.51 per cent.

The need for more and wider banking services and products has fuelled the growth, he said. "There are more insurance and private investment services today, and they have been creating the demand for talents."

Accounting firms, too, reported a rapid growth because of a high demand for such services created by the mainland's economic development.

Vacancies in the marketing and retailing sectors have doubled because of the increasing number of individual travellers from the mainland.

But despite the rosy job market, Hong Kong has a dearth of talents, the Asia regional director of head-hunting firm Hays, Emma Charnock-Smith, said. So serious is the problem that not a single candidate from among the 200 shortlisted by Hays were offered a job by a company.

Such a problem is common particularly in legal, accounting, trading and banking sectors, she said.

This could force companies to hire Hong Kong residents living overseas. "Such candidates have local knowledge and international experience both. They have a good command over Chinese and English, too," she said.

Companies could also offer a more attractive package, including family allowances, to hire such people.

She said Hong Kong people in Canada and Australia would be more interested in coming back because the Hong Kong dollar was comparatively more competent against their currencies than the greenback or the pound sterling.