Job Market Resilience May Limit Asia’s Policy Easing: Economy

Asia’s job markets are holding up even as the European crisis hurts exports, auguring stability in domestic demand that reduces the case for the region’s central banks to add monetary stimulus.

Two-thirds of Asian employers surveyed by Hays Plc, the U.K.’s biggest recruitment firm, said they plan to raise salaries by at least 3 percent this year, while 54 percent anticipate giving bonuses to more than half of their workers. Singapore’s unemployment rate fell to a 14-year low of 2 percent in 2011, Hong Kong’s January rate matched levels not seen since 1998, while South Korea’s is near the lowest since early 2008.