More organisations in Brunei expected to increase hiring

Many organisations in Brunei were expected to increase their employee headcount in July and August 2023, despite expressing some of the difficulties they are facing when hiring both local and foreign employees.

Only a small number intended to dismiss employees due to poor business performance, according to the Business Sentiment Index (BSI) for July 2023 published by the Brunei Darussalam Central Bank (BDCB). In line with new projects and expansion efforts, the latest BSI reveals the trend of businesses expected to increase hiring in July and August 2023, in line with new projects and expansion efforts.

The BSI is based on surveys conducted on almost 500 micro, small, medium, and large businesses from 11 economic sectors across all districts. The key results showed that some businesses were more optimistic with the award and commencement of new projects, while some expected resuming and increasing in business activities after renovation and maintenance works carried out in previous months.

There were also expectations that previous investments in technological advancements, new equipment and machinery for work, and more effort to hire and train employees would result in a rise in productivity. There is thus an expectation to reduce investment expenditure in July 2023 compared to June 2023.

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However, several organisations are looking to increase their level of capital expenditure slightly in the next few months, especially for project-related investment, upgrading IT systems, purchasing new machinery and equipment, renovating facilities, as well as increasing inventory to meet higher consumer demand.

The latest BSI also showed that businesses expected to incur higher salary costs because of previous hiring efforts as well as an increase in costs of carrying out major maintenance works, reported The Star.