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Vibrant
growth across Asia has created thousands of jobs and recruitment specialists say the labour market is staring at a serious skills shortage — with big ramifications for the regional economy. “We are now facing a talent war in Asia,” says Kathleen Chan, a recruitment manager for Panasonic Asia Pacific, which employs about 77,000 workers in the region to produce the electronics products the company is known for. Accounting, IT and marketing are among the sectors where demand for experienced staff is most acute, with Singapore and Hong Kong joining India and China as the countries where hiring is strongest.
The heat is on Two big implications from the labour squeeze stand out. First, countries are either trying to attract skilled workers from abroad or encourage nationals working overseas to come home. Second, and potentially of more concern to policy makers, is the impact on wages. “One risk is that you start to see wage pressures building,” says Lehman Brothers regional economist Rob Subbaraman. “The policy risk is that eventually wage pressures lead to inflation and you have to have higher interest rates to cool inflation, which can lead to slower growth.” This scenario is already starting to play out in some of the hottest sectors. Dhiren Shantilal, a recruitment executive at global firm Kelly Services, says IT, banking and biomedical jobs are getting more expensive in three of Asia's bigger economies. “We anticipate experienced new-hire salaries to increase by 8-12 percent, and existing top management/senior executives' pay to increase by 15-20 percent in developed economies like Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong,” he says. Recruiters expect no let-up in hiring this year as Asia continues to lure foreign investment. China and India are leading the way.
Manpower hunt “The demand for qualified people is massive, and the overall optimism fuelled by the economic boom in China and India is placing huge demands on resources,” says John Patterson, HR director at Diageo Asia-Pacific, the world'’s largest alcoholic drinks firm. While China has emerged as the region's dominant manufacturer, India has developed a booming business in services. By 2010, India may need more than 1,60,000 foreign language speakers to feed its growing offshoring industry, according to a study by research firm Evalueserve. Large companies in China and India are trying to entice nationals working abroad to return, says Shantilal. Shantilal of Kelly Services expects at least a 10 per cent rise in the Chinese and Indian workforces this year. Other parts of Asia are similarly seeing hiring take off. Guy Day, Asia managing director at the recruitment firm Ambition, notes that Singapore is increasing its intake of expatriates and back-office jobs are plentiful. One company that illustrates his point is Standard Chartered Plc. The British-based bank expects to boost headcount in Singapore by nearly 60 percent.
— Reuters
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