Benchmark Pay, Win Talent, and Plan Your 2026 Hiring Strategy
Gain instant access to the latest salary benchmarks, talent trends, and hiring insights within Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam with CGP’s 2026 Southeast Asia Salary Guide. Align pay with market realities to attract and retain critical talent instead of losing them to better‑informed competitors. Support 2026 headcount planning, budgeting, and workforce transformation initiatives with data-backed insights rather than guesswork.
What’s inside:
Country deep dives: Executive summaries and talent trends for major Southeast Asia markets, including hiring outlook, hot roles, and in‑demand skills.
Role-by-role salary ranges: Clear, practical salary bands by function and seniority to support offers, promotions, and internal equity reviews.
Strategic talent insights: Themes such as evolving candidate expectations, mobility across markets, and how employers are redesigning rewards to stay competitive.
Who this guide is for:
Business and HR leaders looking to calibrate compensation and build a resilient workforce strategy for 2026 and beyond.
Talent acquisition and recruitment teams who need an up-to-date reference when advising hiring managers and closing offers.
Mid to senior professionals who want to understand their market value, negotiate smarter, and plan their next career move in Southeast Asia.
Download the guide
Fill in the form below to receive your complimentary copy. Make confident compensation decisions, sharpen your talent strategy, and attract the right professionals in a fiercely competitive market.
CGP Singapore, part of the Cornerstone Global Partners (CGP) Group, is aware of recent incidents involving individuals claiming to be employed and/or associated with CGP and are recruiting in Singapore & Malaysia. We, at CGP, take our candidates safety seriously during the recruitment process. When in doubt, it is always best to contact the company the recruiter is claiming to be from via the official number/email.
Scams including job scams hit all time high in Singapore, recording 45000+ cases in 2024 and in the first half of 2025, there were 2,701 reported job scam cases. So far in 2025, job scams were the third most common scam type (2701 cases reported), after phishing and e-commerce scams, while victims reported over 9043 cases in 2024.
In this scenario, how can you ensure a legitimate job opportunity and protect yourself from falling victim?
Understanding Job Scams
Job scams are fraudulent schemes where scammers pose as employers or recruiters to deceive individuals seeking employment. The primary objectives of these scams are to extract money, obtain personal information, or exploit victims for free labor. Scammers often advertise fake job openings through various channels, including online ads, social media platforms, and even reputable job search websites, sometimes mimicking legitimate companies to appear credible.
Common Warning Signs of Job Scams
Unprofessional Communication: Correspondence from recruiters or employers containing grammatical errors, generic email addresses (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo), or unprofessional language. Professional organizations maintain a standard of communication; deviations may indicate fraudulent activity.
Unsolicited Job Offers: Ambiguity in job descriptions can indicate a scam. Additionally, promises of high income for minimal work, especially for entry-level positions, are often too good to be true.
Requests for Personal or Financial Information: Legitimate employers will not ask for sensitive details like your Social Security number or bank account information early in the recruitment process.
Upfront Payment Requirements: Be cautious if asked to pay for training materials, background checks, or other fees. Authentic employers typically cover these costs.
Vague Job Descriptions: Job postings lacking clear details about responsibilities or qualifications may indicate a scam.
High Earnings for Entry-Level Positions: Offers that promise substantial income with little experience required should be approached with skepticism.
Nov 2025: Impersonation Alert: Fake Consultant Calls Reported
We are aware of recent incidents involving individuals impersonating our consultants and contacting candidates via phone calls. These impersonators may offer fake job opportunities or inquire about employment status under false pretences.
We take candidate safety seriously and urge everyone to remain vigilant. As part of our Protective Measures Against Unsolicited Communications, please note the following:
All CGP Singapore consultants will state their EA Personnel Registration number, which begins with “R”, when contacting candidates.
All CGP Malaysia consultants will provide their JTK license number or registration number during outreach.
See below to understand how to stay vigilant and verify our consultants.
How to Protect Yourself from Job Scams
Research the Company: Verify the organization’s legitimacy by checking for an official website, reading reviews, and confirming contact information. At CGP, our official emails are from @cornerstoneglobalpartners.com or @cgptalent.com
Be Cautious with Personal Information: Share sensitive details only after confirming the employer’s authenticity and receiving a formal job offer.
Avoid Upfront Payments: Decline any job opportunity that requires you to pay fees before starting employment.
Trust Your Instincts: If something feels off about a job offer or recruitment process, it’s wise to step back and reassess.
Protective Measures Against Unsolicited Communications
We’ve been getting reports about unsolicited WhatsApp messages from people pretending to be from ‘CGP Personnel’ or ‘CGP Singapore.’ Sometimes, they use fake names of people who don’t even work here; other times they use the name of one of our consultants.
Unless verified, these messages aren’t from us. Here’s what you can do:
DO NOT respond to text messages or calls from unknown numbers and avoid any communication with unverified individuals.
DO NOT click on any links within the message unless verified.
DO NOT share any personal information at the initial stage of the interview process.
DO NOT proceed with any monetary transactions as we at CGP never ask for any form of payment from candidates as part of the recruitment process.
We are grateful that all our potential candidates exercised due diligence by verifying with us, and our CGP team responded promptly to prevent them from falling victim to these job scams.
Stay vigilant from job scams
We encourage all job seekers to take extra precautions, especially when receiving unsolicited messages. . If you receive an unexpected communication claiming to be from CGP, you can verify the person’s identity by using the Ministry of Manpower EA Directory. You can also contact us directly at contact@cornerstoneglobalpartners.com before responding.
CGP’s Official Social Accounts
CGP Group’s only official social media accounts in Singapore are on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and our WhatsApp channel:
Most executive recruitment companies focus on aligning resumes with jobs. However, there are few that tackle the real problem, which is finding culturally agile, crisis-tested leaders in places where the leadership pipeline is still developing. Nowhere is this more pressing than in Asia, where accelerating economic expansion outstrips talent supply. The demand is not just for executives but visionaries who can take businesses across borders. Filling this leadership void demands not only process—but purpose.
It is this purpose that propels Cornerstone Global Partners (CGP), one of the fastest-growing executive search and recruitment firms within the Asia-Pacific region. Established in 2012 by six pioneers in the executive search industry in Greater China, CGP started with the big ambition: to reinvent executive search in a rapidly shifting world. What began as a local enterprise is now a worldwide firm with offices across Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, and European expansion in the pipeline.
“Having an operating model based on multi-brand and multi region, we have made over 15,000 successful placements and boasted more than 600 team members,” says Sean NG, Co-founder and Managing Director for the Asia Pacific region at Cornerstone Global Partners. However, its focus is not on numbers, but on people. The firm’s mission is to liberate talent and empower entrepreneurs to pursue their career, financial and personal objectives. This candidate-first vision implies prioritizing leaders who shape the company’s futures and creating meaningful careers for individuals. It also provides its people with the power of ownership, growth and global prospects.
A Full-Spectrum Talent Strategy Engineered for Growth
As the Asian continent continues to face shortage of leaders, especially in Southeast Asia and Singapore, CGP is designed to take on the burgeoning complexity in the market. The need for interim executives in technology, life sciences, ESG, and financial services keeps on increasing. Despite the uncertainty of the economy and rapidly changing global dynamics, organizations demand faster, high-impact hiring. The firm meets this challenge through the deployment of sector specific teams, the creation of executive talent communities, and through bespoke, strategic support.
Also to mention, CGP is a perfect blend of local understanding and international capability which allows customers to tap into local and international expertise. It has developed a highly innovative talent intelligence platform that combines features of predictive hiring tools, compensation analytics and real-time market mapping capabilities. Furthermore, they use AI-based search to help their recruitment process become efficient without sacrificing the high-touch, consultative experience that defines their services.
In addition to executive search, CGP provides the full cycle of talent services through contracting, RPO, inbound/outbound hiring strategy and talent consultancy. The company provides its recruitment services across 20 industries, which includes AI, financial services, semiconductors, retail, and real estate, spanning functional roles in sales, marketing, finance, operations, supply chain, IT, and HR. Each of the engagement is supported by a strong proprietary database and research capacity.
Technology is central to CGP’s innovation. Its hybrid recruitment platform provides over 1,500 curated positions, backed by offline consultants and one-on-one career guidance. This combination of AI-based capabilities and human intelligence enables candidates to make more intelligent, timely, and informed decisions about their career pathways and provides better results to clients.
CGP’s leadership exemplifies the firm’s entrepreneurial approach. Sean brings over 21 years of executive search experience across industrial, construction, property, FMCG, and life sciences. Chris Watkins, Co-founder & CEO, has more than 27 years of leadership experience in the U.S. and China, advising both multinational and Chinese firms at the board level. Adding further, the founding team — Alfred Chu, Jillian Wu, Sally Li, and Sophie Wong – each contribute over two decades of expertise in executive search and talent consulting. “Together, we have built a leadership culture grounded in deep industry knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit,” mentions Sean.
“Having an operating model based on multi-brand and multi region, we have made over 15,000 successful placements and boasted more than 600 team members”
Awards, Accolades, and a Vision That Scales
CGP’s approach has earned widespread recognition. It was awarded Best Executive Search Firm in Singapore in the year 2022 and 2023, and Best Mid-Management Recruitment Firm 2023. It holds Great Place to Work certification across Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan (2024–2025), and has won China’s Shanghai “Bo Le” Award five years running, along with LinkedIn’s Global Excellence Talent Management Award in 2021 and 2022.
Clients have repeatedly acknowledged CGP for its strategic advisory, responsiveness and accuracy in hiring executives. One HR Transformation Project Lead at A Regional Telco credited the firm with helping them access “high-caliber candidates that wouldn’t have reached otherwise.” HR Director at a fast-growing Technology Start-up noted, “The process was seamless, consultative, and tailored — a true extension of our internal team.” Candidates, too, speak highly of the firm’s role in shaping career pivots and long-term success. These testimonials are a reflection of the trust it has earned over time, by showing up, staying curious and delivering consistently. For CGP, success is not just about placements; it’s about impact.
CGP Singapore Won Best Executive Search Firm and Best Mid-management Recruitment Partner in 2023
Looking ahead, CGP’s ‘Going Global’ initiative is focused on entering new markets, including the U.S., Europe, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The firm is building a million-level cross-border talent database, positioning itself as the only HR provider with a global pool across multiple sectors. In doing so, CGP is not just filling leadership roles—it’s helping companies build the future, one visionary hire at a time.
At CGP, we believe every great business begins with the right leadership. Whether you’re seeking visionary executives, building regional teams, or scaling globally, our consultants are here to help you secure talent that drives lasting impact.
Partner with us today to discover how CGP can support your hiring needs across Asia and beyond.
