Asia-Pacific: Continued growth in China , supported by stabilisation in Hong Kong , are the key contributing factors behind the bullish sentiment reflected by Aquent’s Asia-Pacific Salary Monitor 2005.

The report points to a “salary rise bonanza” for marketing, communications and creative staff with mainland China and Hong Kong leading the way. The results, drawn from respondents in these two markets along with Australia , Japan , New Zealand , Korea and Singapore , also indicate increasing volatility in China and continued pressure on Singapore ’s creative talent. According to Aquent Singapore, the salary rise reflect improving economic conditions after some difficult years, during which employers restructured workforces and reduced salaries to remain competitive.

“As the market begins to improve last year, employees are expecting management to keep their promise and reward them for weathering the storm with the company,” sad Koh. “The bullish sentiments need to be tempered as some companies were not paying staff market rates to remain competitive in the last two years. Faced with losing good staff, these companies are prepared to do so now.”

In Greater China, this is being manifested by 95% and 85% of respondents planning to increase salaries on the mainland and Hong Kong , respectively. Aquent China area manager Duncan Cunningham, said: “Sadly most organizations are still putting too much emphasis on retaining staff through increases in salary and bonuses as opposed to balancing real individual career growth and development versus financial incentives.”

Churn in China remains a pressing, and complex issue. “The employer ultimately is the victim in this situation as there is not enough talent to service demand and so companies are having to inflate salaries regularly at the same time as deal with a semi-constant churn of talent and the cost of down time associated with getting new staff up to speed whilst maintaining growth, “ said Cunningham.