Executive Pay Hits China’s Radar

During my two-hour-long interview with a senior Chinese banker recently, we covered a lot of topics, from the credit crisis in the U.S. to the emergence of consumerism in China. He was unusually open for a Chinese executive. But when I asked about his multi-million yuan ($1 is about seven yuan) compensation last year, he fell silent.

If you think executive pay is a controversial topic in the U.S., or that the tension between highly-paid CEOs and shareholders is high here, you should see China. Publicly-traded Chinese companies didn’t start disclosing executive-pay information until a couple of years ago, and it instantly became an explosive topic in proxy seasons. Many Chinese raised questions such as, “What do they base their pay on?” and “How could they make more than the state chairman?”

The senior banker said he would be more than happy if his name weren’t associated with the topic. On the one hand, he explained, top executives at public companies do make a lot more than executives at state-owned enterprises and government officials, not to mention the majority of ordinary Chinese. On the other hand, he said, people like him are make far less than their counterparts on Wall Street and in Hong Kong. To attract and retain talented people who are increasingly moving around globally, public Chinese companies need to offer comparable salaries and bonuses. So the pay of executives like him are more or less a compromise between China’s reality and market competition.

“But how can I say this to those who make very little?” he asked. “They won’t understand, and I don’t expect them to understand.”

I see his point. I can’t imagine China going back to the egalitarian society that we escaped 30 years ago, in which everybody received a salary based on their educational background and seniority, instead of their capabilities and achievements. Few people will work hard unless they know they will be rewarded, whether that reward is a bonus for a banker, power for a politician or a harvest for a farmer. That’s simply human nature, and China’s economic growth in the past three decades is the best evidence of it.

But I also understand why the unemployed, the middle class and lowly-paid government officials get angry at what they see as astronomical pay. The average annual income of urban workers in China last year was 24,932 yuan ($3,561), according to the National Bureau of State Statistics. Farmers and migrant workers make far less than that. Meanwhile, Shenzhen Development Bank Chairman and Chief Executive Frank Newman made roughly 23 million yuan ($3.3 million) in 2007, about 922 times the average urban pay [in an earlier version of this column, I mistakenly said 92 times], and Ping An Insurance Co. Chairman Ma Mingzhe made more than 66 million yuan ($9.3 million), or 2,647 times a regular worker’s pay. (He donated 20 million yuan to a charity.)

The executive-compensation figures have triggered a public backlash. In an online vote on Sina.com, one of China’s top portals, 93% of voters disapproved of the executive-pay practices at Ping An and Shenzhen Development Bank.

Mr. Ma of Ping An has also been made a villain in Internet chat rooms and on online forums since his pay information became public late last month. “Is the 66 Million Yuan Pay an April Fool’s Joke?” demands a post on the popular online forum Tianya.cn. Last week, 1,055 car owners petitioned the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to investigate Ping An’s executive-pay practices. They also asked the regulator to find out how much of the obligatory car-accident insurance fees they paid went to Ping An’s executive compensation. The petition has been cheered on by Internet posters, with a 7,000-word-long post depicting Mr. Ma and Ping An’s rise to fortune widely circulated between forums. The article includes many unverified details, and allegations that Mr. Ma used connections with powerful people to become one of the wealthiest people in China.

More importantly, some state-controlled public companies rely on monopolies and preferential government policies for their profits, so there’s an understandable debate about whether these firms’ government-appointed executives should get paid handsomely — and if their compensation should be linked to those “guaranteed” profits.

Ping An and Shenzhen Development Bank are no longer state-controlled, although they were started with funding from local governments. But CEOs at state-controlled mega-banks, such as Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Construction Bank of China, are appointed by the government, and their positions are equivalent to vice ministers. Some company leaders have been called back to work as government officials. The Chinese government doesn’t disclose income for its officials, but vice ministers are believed to make less than 10,000 yuan a month (although they do get other benefits, such as housing and drivers). All CEOs at the nine publicly-traded banks received more than one million yuan in compensation in 2006.

As these banks are getting better at disclosing information about their executive pay, they also need to answer the questions raised on online forums again and again: Do these officials deserve more than 10 times their government pay once they are appointed as CEOs of public companies? Do they have the managerial talent to be retained with shareholders’ money? Is their loyalty to the government, or to their shareholders? If some of the bank’s income comes from its monopoly position and preferential government policies, should the CEO be rewarded for that?

There are no easy answers to these questions: While the U.S. and other industrial countries have been debating executive pay for many years, China has just started the discussion — and has to conduct it against the backdrop of a complex asset structure and political system. But it seems that the Chinese public is determined to ask these tough questions every proxy season. And that in itself is encouraging.

Write to Li Yuan at li.yuan@wsj.com.

China’s Labor Advances May Affect U.S. Prices

As Chinese workers gain more power and employment choices, the country’s economy has had to adjust. And these changes may soon impact prices on goods in America. Host Steve Inskeep talks with NPR’s Frank Langfitt and Alexandra Harney, author of The China Price, about what the future may hold for the world economy.

In recent years Chinese workers gained leverage due to an unanticipated labor shortage, Langfitt says.

“This gave more workers a lot more power vis-a-vis management,” he says, adding that while people were desperate to have jobs in the ’90s, today they may walk out of a factory if they don’t like their job or the working conditions.

This shift in power has led to increased costs for Chinese manufacturers.

“China used to be so cheap they were unbeatable,” Harney says. “The China price was the cheapest price you could get for anything around the world, but now that China is becoming more expensive, thousands of factories are starting to close down in Southern China.”

As a result, Harney says, American companies will start paying more for goods they buy from China.

“I think that we are going to start seeing more and more of this show up on American price tags this year and next year,” she says. “Some retailers and importers are telling me that they are already starting to have to raise the prices in the U.S.”

Chinese salaries likely to rise as government encourages collective bargaining

Hangzhou, April 12 (Xinhua) — China is launching a systematic effort to support ordinary workers to bargain for salaries with their employers.

The All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the national labor organization with a membership of 169.94 million people in 2007, released its plan to promote the collective bargaining in more industries and regions.

The mechanism would allow trade unions or labor representatives to take the lead in appealing for salary rises and directly negotiate with employers until the two sides reached a plan.

“We would promote the negotiations of reasonable salaries, bonus, allowances and subsidies,” said Sun Chunlan, ACFTU vice-chairperson, at a meeting here on Thursday.

The idea to solve salary disputes through organized negotiation was introduced by former the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (now the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security), which issued a tentative measure in 2000.

“The employer and the workers are equal in raising suggestions and have the same veto power,” it said.

The promotion of such a practice, however, has been hindered by the lack of legislative support and the diversified situation of both public and non-public enterprises. In addition, the growing number of job seekers gave employers far more leverage than the workers in bargaining labor prices.

“And trade unions in many private companies are established by the business owners and are affiliated to the company. Therefore, they are unable to effectively bargain salary rises for the workers,” said Xu Xiaojun, a professor from China Institute of Industrial Relations who specialized in trade union study.

“Unreasonable salaries have become a major problem causing social conflict in the Chinese labor market.”

ACFTU Vice-chairperson Sun Chunlan said it would explore and try to solve existing problems in promoting salary negotiation.

Authorities in Shanghai issued a detailed plan in March to promote such practices. It aimed to establish the bargaining mechanism in 75 percent of state-owned enterprises and 60 percent of non-public enterprises with trade unions this year. The plan would expand the number of laborers covered in the mechanism by 10 percent.

In March, a salary negotiation in Hua Yue, an adhesive tape producer in Hebei Province with more than 700 employees, lifted workers’ annual minimum salary by 1,860 yuan (265 U.S. dollars). Experienced workers enjoyed a higher increase.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, per-capita disposable income was 13,786 yuan in urban areas last year, up 17.2 percent, or 12.2 percent in real terms. Per-capita income was 4,140 yuan in rural areas, up 15.4 percent, or 9.5 percent in real terms.

CNC Manager (fi174cz)

Company: One leading textile machinery manufacturing company from European

Title: CNC Manager
Location: ChangZhou
Responsibility

1. Coordinate and organize the dept based on the department’s target
2. Optimize manufacturing structure and efficiency
3. Capacity control, order supervise and quality assurance
4. Budget and cost center responsibility
5. Report to the chief of manufacturing

Qualification

1. University education in metal processing (CNC)
2. Possess experience of working in machine field several years, and management experience
3. Possess comparably good management ability, and be able to communicate in English, master computer operation. And prepare proper reporting.
4. Have high responsibility, active attitude, enterprising spirit, and good work ethic.
5. Have good communication ability with superior and subordinates.

* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English to: ‘topjob_fi174cz@dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)
* In the email subject MUST you plus the position name ?in either En or Ch ?

Cost Controller (fi176sh)

Our client is a world leader in AFC (Automatic Fare Collection) systems for public transport. It successfully completed many metro projects for numerous cities around the world. In Asia, it provided AFC systems for Hong Kong, Taipei, Manila, and more recently by TPTS, such as New Delhi, Bangkok, Nanjing, Beijing, Caracas Bubai ect. With the fast development of metro industry in China, Asia and many other countries, our client will reinforce their JV in R&D, program management and other operational positions.

Job Description:

Responsibilities:

1. Analyze, evaluate the cost (technology) for the company and provide budget or offer to clients.
2. Responsible for the risk calculation & control of the company;
3. Follow up the cost condition of projects; provide the necessary supporting to project review (forecast and suggestion).
4. Inspect the stock (include row materials, WIP, finish goods), analyze & forecast the profit or loss for materials.
5. Take part in preparing the cost control rule and follow up the enforce status.
6. Other works assigned by GM or DGM.

Requirements

1. B.Sc. Finance, accounting, economic or equivalent.
2. 5+ years working experience in cost management and risk control in Manufacturing or Software company
3. CPA or ACCA qualification ;
4. Good knowledge of procurement, manufacturing and logistic
5. Good ability of communication. Good English Level
6. Good ability of using Excel and PPT to analyze and evaluate figures

* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English to: ‘topjob_fi176@dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)
* In the email subject MUST you plus the position name ?in either En or Ch ?

Office Manager(eo140sh)

Responsibilities:

1. Implement and monitor office management and other regulations
2. Improve office management and administration
3. Optimize HR process, such as recruitment, contract management, on-board process, exit interview etc. – Negotiate admin contracts, e.g. office lease, hotel, air ticket, car rental, etc.
4. Communicate with business division, explain and response to the customers’ complaints and request;
5. Coordinate and arrange relevant service for VIP/top management ‘s visit and conference &training
6. Ensure and enhance office security &safety system
7. Manage renovation, office seating plan: communication with each division on their needs make suitable proposal, select vendor and conduct the office renovation, make sure the project going on smoothly to meet the requirements.
8. Supervise team members and tea ladies – Other tasks from managers

Requirement ?

1. University graduates;
2. Minimum 2~3 years work experience of HR& Admin support experience as an Office Manager is preferred – Strong PC skills: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook
3. Good command of English, fluent Shanghai
4. Good sense of responsibility, enthusiasm for the initiative, pragmatic and willing to do Quick-learner, team player with good interpersonal skills

* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English to: ‘topjob_eo140sh@dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)
* In the email subject MUST you plus the position name ?in either En or Ch ?

Staff sent to China still increasing

TAIPEI, Taiwan — More and more Taiwanese companies are sending employees — both expatriates and locals — to China, said Seraphim Mar, a senior partner with Baker & McKenzie, at an AmCham Greater China Business Committee luncheon held recently at the Sherwood Hotel in Taipei. AmCham is the largest, oldest and most influential grouping of international and local businesses on the island.
She questioned, however, whether companies have taken sufficient steps to comply with relevant laws. “Have you considered the consequences of employment relationships in both the short and long term?” she asked the gathering of international business executives. “Is it better, from a legal perspective, to send employees as expatriates from the Taiwan-based operation or to hire them directly in China?” she continued. In particular, she stressed that companies must consider the impacts of the People’s Republic of China’s new Labor Contract Law, which went into effect on January 1, 2008.

Mar outlined one possible scenario: “Let’s say a company in Taiwan is contemplating sending 20 Taiwanese employees as expatriates to work for its affiliate in Shanghai. The company continues paying salaries from Taiwan, while the PRC affiliate pays only minimum salaries. The company in Taiwan also continues to make employee labor insurance, national health insurance and pension contributions. The question then becomes: Who is the actual employer, and how do the various laws in China and Taiwan view the employment relationship?”

Tax issues also come into play. “The worker has de-facto employment in China,” said Mar. “That entails social insurance obligations as well as tax liability and transfer pricing issues. The same, however, remains true in Taiwan.” One solution, she said, would be for the Taiwan-based entity to reimburse its employees the cost of insurance in Taiwan, rather than contributing it directly.

Another problem is one of termination. “If the company in Taiwan does not have a position available, whose laws govern?” she asked. “If a pension is payable, is it based on Taiwanese or Chinese salary levels?”

Mar also pointed out that, according to the PRC Employment Contract Law, a fixed-term contract becomes open-ended (long-term) contract if the employee has worked for 10 consecutive years or the fixed-term contract is signed twice, consecutively. Likewise, the same occurs when an employer fails to conclude a written employment contract with the worker within a year. “Employers that fail to conclude an open-ended contract,” said Mar, “will have to pay workers double their monthly wages starting from the date that such a contract should have been put into effect.”

China marches into outsourcing

CHANGSHA, CHINA — In the foothills of Yuelu Mountain here, a young Mao Tse-tung found inspiration in nature for his political aspirations. Today, Communist Party officials have a different vision for this area: a valley of global outsourcing firms.

One of them, Beijing-based Chinasoft International Ltd., is recruiting hundreds of workers to process medical bills and health insurance claims. Its target customers: U.S. doctors.

Chinasoft is launching the venture with a Tennessee firm, Premier BPO Inc., which has similar operations in India and Pakistan. Chen Yuhong, Chinasoft’s managing director, thinks it’s only a matter of time before China makes big gains against India — which now leads the world in information technology outsourcing.

“They’re seriously concerned about our challenge,” said Chen, 44, who has a doctorate in engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology and speaks fluent English.

Most analysts reckon it’ll be perhaps a decade before China catches up. India’s IT outsourcing revenue, estimated at $18 billion in 2007, is about six times the size of China’s. The gap figures to be even bigger for business-process outsourcing, such as medical billing and back-office work. With its history as a British colony, India has workers with strong English skills and familiarity with Western culture. That gives companies there a big edge when bidding for jobs that require reading reports and talking to Americans.

But China’s sales of IT outsourcing work are growing at roughly twice the rate of India’s. Consulting firm Analysys International says they jumped 45% in the fourth quarter of 2007, to about $600 million. Although much of that was for clients in Japan and other Asian countries, China is making a push to extend its reach.

In 2006, the central government launched the “Thousand, Hundred, Ten” project, aimed at cultivating 1,000 Chinese outsourcing companies that would cater to 100 international clients. Beijing wants to situate them in at least 10 cities. Some are familiar locales — Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen. But success or failure may come down to smaller cities largely unknown abroad.

Wages, plus land and housing prices, have soared in China’s top-tier cities, prompting many foreign manufacturers to relocate. Officials hope that places such as Wuhan, Jinan and Changsha will be lower-cost alternatives for the service industry as well.

Junior software engineers in those cities can be hired for $170 to $250 a month — a third of the going rates in Beijing or Shanghai, said Tian Yuqi, human resources manager at VanceInfo Technologies Inc., a Beijing-based IT outsourcing firm listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Those wages also are a lot lower than in India’s outsourcing hubs such as Bangalore and New Delhi, where salaries are spiraling up.

“China enjoys the cost advantage, but India enjoys the market advantage,” Tian said.

China’s government wants both — and is helping with incentives. Firms setting up in designated outsourcing zones can enjoy a two-year waiver of taxes. They can get a subsidy of about $700 per employee for training and hiring. Local governments are chipping in with sweet deals for rent and land, as well as cash for certain sectors. Hunan province, for example, has set aside about $56 million to bolster the local animation industry, which is particularly strong in Changsha.

“They’re going after it with determination,” said Gaurav Gupta, country head in India for Everest Group, a consulting and research firm based in Britain. Gupta and others at Everest track 125 outsourcing cities in the world, including 10 in China and more than 30 in India. Yet for all their potential, he says, Chinese outsourcing companies are generally serving domestic businesses — not offshore customers, as India’s firms tend to do.

Chinasoft’s Chen, though, sees a way to leverage China’s large domestic market into offshore contracts. As more Chinese businesses and public agencies contract out their IT, back-office and call-center operations, the firms that provide those services could offer connections to Western firms to help them break into the Chinese market.

“We tell them, ‘You give us business in [your country], and we’ll give you the market here,’ ” Chen said. Chinasoft also is considering buying a stake in companies such as Premier BPO to help drive more American customers to its fledgling outsourcing operations in China. Though Chinasoft has branch offices around the world, including San Francisco and Seattle, its IT outsourcing revenue was only about $9 million in last year’s third quarter, the latest period for which results are available.

Mark Briggs, chairman of privately held Premier BPO, declined to comment on the specifics of the deal with Chinasoft. He agreed that familiarity with English was a major plus for India; something as simple as commas and semicolons can be stumbling blocks for Chinese workers coding data into computers, he said. But training can overcome such language and cultural gaps, and Briggs predicted that the same assets that propelled China’s manufacturing industry — great infrastructure and labor power — would help it become tops in outsourcing.

“I personally believe China will overtake the rest of the world in BPO,” or business-process outsourcing, he said.

Changsha may be well suited to play a key role. Many Chinese regard Hunan as a center of culture and creative talent. The wildly popular television show “Super Girl,” akin to “American Idol,” was produced here. Changsha accounts for much of the nation’s cartoon design and TV programming.

Changsha natives claim an outsize share of placements at top IT companies, managers say. The city boasts three universities rated highly for industrial design and software engineering. China’s first supercomputer was developed at Changsha’s National University of Defense Technology.

“They have a lot of talented people,” said Xuedong Huang, a general manager at Microsoft Corp.’s communications innovation center in Redmond, Wash. Like most major technology companies, Microsoft’s investment and work in China have been focused in Beijing and Shanghai. For four years, it has run a small software outsourcing project in Changsha.

“I’ve been very impressed with the quality, even by Microsoft standards,” said Huang, himself a product of Hunan University in Changsha. What’s unclear, he says, is whether an inland city as “small” as Changsha, population 6 million, can become a major player in outsourcing.

Changsha has yet to cultivate a star company in IT or business-process outsourcing. One reason is that Changsha’s homegrown talent is lured by glitzier, cosmopolitan cities on the coast. Seventy percent of engineering graduates leave Hunan, said Lin Yaping, vice dean of Hunan University’s software school. To keep them, “what we need is a dragon head,” he said, referring to an internationally famous firm.

About 300 firms have set up in Changsha’s software and outsourcing zone at the foot of Yuelu Mountain. Some have partnerships with big names including IBM Corp. and Google Inc., but most are tiny operations. One of the most promising locally bred IT companies, Powerise International Software Co., faltered and was bought by Chinasoft in 2006.

Today, Chinasoft’s 160 staff members in Changsha do IT outsourcing for mainly Japanese companies, but most of it is coding work and software testing, not the high-end engineering and designing that Changsha craves.

VanceInfo Technologies’ experience in Changsha isn’t encouraging.

The Beijing firm opened a branch here in 2003. Tian said it took him nine months to recruit 60 engineers. They had little trouble doing the work, including developing, testing and localizing software and handling electronic transfers of loans for major banks.

But Tian said his staff in Changsha, lacking strong English skills, struggled in conference calls with customers. Nor were VanceInfo’s clients entirely comfortable dealing in a small city unfamiliar to them, he said, and the firm shut the office in 2005.

“Compared to the Japanese, major clients in Europe and North America emphasized much more the city’s characteristics,” Tian said. “They preferred Shanghai. Our clients weren’t supporting our establishing centers in cities like Changsha.”

Upgrading China’s labor force

GUANGZHOU, China, This year is likely to be a difficult one for China’s economy, as Premier Wen Jiabao warned at a recent press conference. The export business has been shrinking due to the appreciation of the Chinese yuan, as well as the “austerity” policy. This is going to make it harder for people to find jobs.
Chinese academics are now avidly discussing the need for transformation of the nation’s industries. This cannot be achieved overnight, however. The most urgent task is to find employment for China’s labor force.

One solution would be to support and encourage the export of labor. If taken as a national strategy, China could focus on “branding” its labor force as an exportable commodity. Some Chinese may feel this would dishonor China, which claims a noble history and by tradition considers itself the nation of heaven. But this would be the most effective approach to serve the interests of both the laborers and the country.

When speaking of exported labor, the Chinese cannot help but think of the Philippines and compare it with China.

In the eyes of many Chinese, the Philippines is not a very successful country. In discussing national development models, Chinese academics typically criticize the country, saying, “Everyone says the Philippines has American-style democracy, doesn’t it? The result is that its women all go abroad to be housemaids!”

Firstly, whether the Philippines can be viewed as a democratic country remains questionable, in my opinion. But even so, the Chinese are not qualified to mock its democracy by criticizing Filipino maids.

Secondly, earning a living by working is not shameful. And in the global era, it’s not bad to go abroad to labor for higher pay, rather than receiving low pay for heavy work in the domestic market. Basketball star Yao Ming’s act of going to the United States to join the National Basketball Association is an example of exported labor, after all.

The export of labor has been a very significant industry in the Philippines, and Filipino maids are famous throughout Southeast Asia. For example, there are 700,000 Filipino maids in Hong Kong alone. In fact, it’s not an exaggeration to say that middle-class families in Southeast Asia cannot function well without their Filipino maids.

China’s current economic model is not essentially different from the Philippines — both countries are earning foreign currency by selling their cheap labor force.

Today China is proud of being called the factory of the world, but there are actually two kinds of world factories. One is like Britain during the Industrial Revolution, when its industrial products were sold worldwide. Britain relied mainly on its leading skills and efficiency in the world.

China, however, relies almost exclusively on its cheap labor. Its so-called export orientation is merely exchanging its major resource, the domestic work force, for foreign currency in the international market. The Chinese government thus becomes the biggest labor contractor in the world.

China should pay attention to at least two points if it wishes to expand its labor exports. The first is to brand its work force as a high-quality product, in the same way that watches from Switzerland and leather shoes from Italy are recognized for their high quality.

Filipino maids have succeeded in this. People want maids from the Philippines because they are known for their honesty, optimism and diligence, and employers are willing to pay them higher wages than their counterparts from other countries. This is the outcome of long-term assistance from the Philippine government and employment agencies.

Even though China produces consumer goods for the whole world, how many people will remember the Chinese laborers who make these products, working long hours under terrible conditions? Without a reputation for quality like the Filipinos have, Chinese workers’ only advantage is their low price. If wages are raised, many industries will move away to other countries.

The second point the government should pay attention to is protecting the basic rights and welfare of its laborers. The Philippine Embassy in Hong Kong, for example, pays attention to employers’ inappropriate treatment of its nationals. The embassy keeps a list of employers charged with abusing their maids, forcing them to work overtime or sleep on the floor, for example. If these employers do not improve the situation, they won’t be allowed to hire Filipino maids.

In China’s factories, some employees’ working conditions and wages are far worse than those of Filipino maids. Many work very long hours for a salary of just a few hundred yuan. When will they receive reasonable payment, and take pride in their work like the Filipino maids do?

One advantage of Filipino maids is their ability to speak English; most Chinese cannot compete on this point.

Nevertheless, in many other fields Chinese workers — such as construction workers, cooks and massage therapists — can be globally competitive. The Chinese authorities could work on branding such fields and supporting industry associations to develop professional standards and grading systems. Especially Chinese cooks and massage therapists could be very competitive and eventually dominate the world market, for those are among China’s traditional areas of excellence.

If the Chinese authorities can build the image of Chinese workers into a high-quality brand, like the Filipino maids, within the next five to ten years, the idea of China rising and surpassing the United Kingdom and the United States could be more than just empty talk.

Recruiter reports banking slowdown

A financial services recruitment firm has reported a further weakening in the UK banking sector.
Michael Page International plc published its interim management statement relating to the period from 1 January to 31 March 2008, the first quarter of the financial year ended 31 December 2008.

For the first quarter of 2008, Michael Page reports a record quarterly group gross profit of £140.3m, an increase of 33.0 per cent (23.8 per cent) over the £105.5m recorded in the first quarter of 2007.

In the group’s largest region, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) representing 46 per cent of its gross profit, first quarter gross profit was £65.2m, an increase of 55.3 per cent (37.7 per cent) over the £42m recorded in the first quarter of 2007.

“With good activity levels, we continue to experience strong demand for talent across all countries and disciplines, with the exception of banking,” the firm said.

In the UK, representing 34 per cent of group gross profit, first quarter gross profit was £47.1m, an increase of 6.7 per cent over the £44.1m recorded in the first quarter of 2007.

“While it is not possible to quantify, our first quarter growth rate was affected by the early Easter break and a further weakening of the banking sector, which is also impacting some of our other disciplines that service banking clients,” according to the group.

Outside of these banking related areas Michael Page International reported good activity in job and candidate flow.

In Asia, the group’s businesses grew gross profit at 11 per cent, with China, including Hong Kong, continuing to grow strongly, offset by a slowing in its Tokyo business, where banking represents a higher proportion of the business.

Steve Ingham, chief executive of Michael Page International (LSE:MPI), said, “Whilst we continue to experience strong activity levels and demand for talent, in certain areas there are signs of more cautionary behaviour.”