SINGAPORE: Companies will continue to hire amid the credit crunch and they are also prepared to give higher salary and bonus payouts, according to a quarterly survey done by recruitment giant, Hudson.

When asked if the credit crunch would have any impact on their hiring plans, only 8 percent out of a total of 659 executives from key sectors in Singapore said "yes".

Among those polled, 51 percent said they were looking to increase headcount – a figure that is slightly lower than the 54 percent in last quarter's survey.

But according to Hudson, this is still within the healthy range. Recruitment forecast for the last eight quarters stayed within the range of 51 percent to 56 percent.

Meanwhile, 71 percent of the respondents said they were willing to offer higher salaries to new hires by more than 10 percent, the highest increase for markets surveyed in Asia.

Banking and Financial Services (85 percent) as well as IT (84 percent) topped the ranks for sectors looking to increase their salary offers.

In terms of bonuses, 61 percent of the executives said they would pay more than 10 percent this time round. This was up from last quarter's 53 percent.

Some 20 percent of the respondents also said they were looking at a 20 percent increase in bonuses this year.

Despite the payout increases, 40 percent of respondents across all sectors said they were experiencing turnover rates of more than 10 percent.


- CNA/so