Jobs in Asia

And the bad news seems to continue.

An article on hiring reductions in Asia.

Posted in verbatim from an article on Bloomberg.

Standard Chartered Postpones Hiring in Hong Kong

By Chia-Peck Wong

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Standard Chartered Plc, the third- biggest U.K. bank, pushed back its hiring plans in Hong Kong after the city slipped into an economic recession.

``We constantly review our hiring needs, but the market's momentum has changed so we have postponed hiring in some cases,'' Gabriel Kwan, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman, said by phone today.

Banks and brokerages worldwide have announced more than 166,000 job cuts since the subprime-mortgage market's collapse last year. Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, said earlier this week that it will trim 52,000 jobs, while HSBC Holdings Plc said it eliminated 500 jobs in Asia, 90 percent of them in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong, the biggest contributor to Standard Chartered's pretax income in the first half with a 25 percent share, has entered its first recession since the SARS epidemic in 2003. Gross domestic product shrank a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, the government said last week.

Standard Chartered employs 5,500 in Hong Kong. The London- based bank has been reviewing its business and ``will try to redeploy staff to minimize the impact,'' Kwan said.

The HSBC cuts amount to about 2 percent of its total workforce in the city.

Other Banks

Hang Seng Bank Ltd., Hong Kong's second-biggest by assets, has no plans to trim its workforce of 8,210 in the city, spokeswoman Irene Chua said. The bank, a unit of HSBC, hasn't imposed a hiring freeze, redeployed workers or reduced business travel, she said, declining to elaborate further.

Bank of East Asia Ltd., the city's third-biggest by assets, said it has no plans to reduce headcount. The bank, which last cut workers in 2003, today said it will continue to monitor the situation.

The lender employs more than 4,200 workers in Hong Kong. Its shares have risen 7.3 percent since Oct. 27, when it said it would book an impairment loss of HK$3.5 billion ($452 million) this year after selling its entire portfolio of collateralized debt obligations.

BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Ltd. is offering voluntary retirement to employees aged 50 or who have worked for 30 years to cut costs, the Standard reported today, without saying where it got the information.

``We are constantly reviewing and adjusting our human resources policy in a prudent manner according to the changes in market environment and business operation,'' BOC Hong Kong spokeswoman Angel Yip said by phone today. She declined to elaborate on specific measures or comment on the Standard report.