[2008.11.22] 亚洲企业：人员依旧短缺

Business in Asia
亚洲企业

You still can’t get the staff
人员依旧短缺

Nov 20th 2008 | HONG KONG AND SINGAPORE
From The Economist print edition

Staff shortages persist, despite the slowdown in economic activity
员工短缺，经济放缓

DID the news that factory-output growth in China fell to a seven-year low in October, and reports of job losses across Asia, have a silver lining for managers in the region? Slowing growth ought, after all, to mean that pressure to grow quickly is finally waning, and their biggest headache-finding and retaining staff-should be easing. In China, thousands of factories have closed. Multinationals such as American Express and Motorola have announced lay-offs in India. Thousands of workers have been fired in the Philippines, and millions of Bangladeshi, Indian, Indonesian and Malaysian workers are being sent home from the Middle East, Singapore and Taiwan.

10月，中国制造业产量增长创下7年来新低；亚洲就业市场萎靡。面对如此局面，企业经理们是否能看到一线曙光呢？不管怎样，经济放缓意味着高速增长压力最终得以缓解，经理们最头痛的问题– 发现并留用员工–也变得相对容易。中国已有上千家工厂倒闭。许多跨国企业，比如美国运通和摩托罗拉，在印度已经开始裁员。在菲律宾，上千名工人被炒鱿鱼，更有数百万计孟加拉、印度、印尼和马来西亚工人遭到解雇，从中东、新加坡和台湾返乡。

Yet managers say the shortage of staff is still not easing. This is partly because many of these job losses have been in industries such as toymaking, textiles and construction, which use migrant and unskilled workers. There was never any shortage of those to begin with. Another reason is that many troubled companies have chosen not to make staff redundant. Legal hurdles make it much harder to get rid of staff these days, especially in China and India. So some firms have instead cut wages and working hours, or extended holidays. CLSA, a financial-services firm in Hong Kong, recently announced that its top 500 staff would take pay cuts of 15-25%, and several banks in South Korea have also reduced pay. Chartered Semiconductor in Singapore has trimmed pay by up to 20%. Several carmakers in India and South Korea have asked staff to take unpaid leave.

既便如此，诸多企业仍旧表示员工短缺问题仍然没有得到解决。其中一个原因或许就是，本轮的大幅裁员大都发生在玩具制造、纺织和建筑等大量需要民工和非技术型工人行业。这些行业从一开始就不存在员工短缺问题。另一个原因是，许多公司由于境况不佳，削减员工储备。再者，法律的完善也使如今裁员变得更加困难，尤其是在中国和印度，这个问题尤甚。一些公司于是采取减薪、缩短工作时限和延长假期等方法应对。里昂证券香港分部近日宣布旗下500名高级员工减薪15-25%，韩国几家银行也采取相同动作。新加坡特许半导体公司减薪幅度达20%。一些印度和韩国汽车厂商已要求员工无薪休假。

Paradoxically, business leaders report that this has actually raised morale and contributed to another problem. In the past, companies suffered from very high rates of staff turnover-the average tenure of managers in Shanghai was barely 15 months. But economic uncertainty makes workers more inclined to stay put, and firms that want to hire find it harder to entice people to move. “The talent pool has grown-but only for banking staff,” says Greg Miller, managing director of Mersey Manufacturers Timex Group in China.

矛盾的是，企业领导人认为这恰恰能鼓舞士气但也滋生了另一个问题。过去，企业往往饱受员工流动率过高之苦–在上海，一名经理的平均任期仅为15个月。但如今经济不景气，员工安分守己许多，公司挖墙脚也更难。天美时集团中国区总裁Greg Miller表示：”企业的人才储备得到了增长，不过仅限于银行业。”

In many industries demand for workers continues to rise. Most of Asia’s domestic economies are still forecast to expand strongly in 2009. “Far from retrenching, we are redoubling our efforts to grow,” says the boss of one pharmaceutical firm. Companies in the region also expect a further boom in outsourcing from America and Europe as companies there try to cut costs. NASSCOM, a body which represents India’s software and computer-services firms, predicts that 200,000 additional jobs will be created next year.

许多行业对于技术型员工的需求将继续上涨。预计2009年，大多数亚洲国家国内经济仍将保持较迅猛态势。”我们非但不削减投资，还要加倍努力，保持增长，”一位制药公司老板表示。欧美公司为了压低成本，纷纷将业务外包给亚洲企业。这也使得亚洲企业得到新一轮增长。印度国家软件和服务公司协会预计明年将会新增200,000个就业岗位。

This means that skilled workers’ wages are still going up. Heather Payne, head of the Asian division of Research International, a market-research firm, says she expects wage hikes of 14% in India and 9% in China next year, only marginally less than in 2008. There is “simply not enough talent to feed the growth”, she says. When any skilled workers are laid off they are instantly snapped up by other firms. Finding good managers who can work internationally is still especially hard. There is also an acute shortage of finance, research-and-development and engineering skills.

这也意味着技术型员工的工资仍旧会涨。国际市场研究集团亚洲区总裁Heather Payne表示她预计明年印度和中国的工资涨幅将分别达到14%和9%，增幅同比2008年略有下调。她还表示，相比于市场的增长，”人才仍旧显得供不应求”。一个技术型员工下岗，立马有其他公司抢购。找到能在不同国家胜任其职的经理人更是难上加难。另外，资金。研发和工程技术严重短缺也是亟待解决的问题。

Managers of many multinational businesses in the region have another problem. Like their local competitors, they hope to increase regional sales in the next few years on the back of economic growth. But they have the additional pressure of having to expand even faster than local rivals, as they are told to compensate for sales declines in America and Europe. Worse, many are also being told to cut costs, in line with globally prescribed cutbacks. They must cope with rising wages for skilled workers, a shortage of suitable staff and pricing pressure from local competitors. “Next year will be especially hard,” says one regional boss. Except, presumably, for his skilled staff.

许多跨国企业亚洲区经理人还面临着一个难题。和当地企业一样，他们也希望在未来几年内，凭借着亚洲经济迅猛增长，其业绩能够提升。但相较于当地企业，跨国企业的地区经理压力更大，因为他们要达到更快的业绩增长才能弥补欧美地区的损失。更糟的是，他们还被要求要和全球同步，削减成本。眼下，技术型员工工资上涨、优秀员工短缺以及同当地企业的价格战都是令地区经理们头痛的事。”明年会尤其艰难，”一位地区总裁这样说到。当然，技术型员工得除外。

译者：james0401047  http://www.ecocn.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=15585&extra=page%3D1