Rewards trend in transition
Korea’s labor force well positioned due to talented professionals By Diana Yang In the Asia-Pacific region, most countries are either major emerging markets, or developed markets with strong linkage to emerging markets hence benefit from its growth. It will take time for the developed countries to fully recover. By contrast, strong growth and high commodity prices will put upward pressure on wages and inflation in many emerging markets. In 2011, most of the markets are facing similar problems they had before the crisis: talent turnover, inflation, currency appreciation, and increased labor cost. Aon Hewitt 2011 – 2012 Salary Planning survey shows that half of the countries in Asia-Pacific experienced salary increases close or higher than 6%, most of them emerging markets. However, it is noticeable that mature markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia also experience 4-5% increase, as shown in Figure 1. South Korea Outlook Despite persistent difficulties in youth employment, Korea’s job market as whole continues its trend of gradual improvement. In
