Growing Finance Jobs In Asia: Recovery Or Bubble Symptoms?

The good news is that hiring is taking place once more again in Asia's financial sector.

chart from the New York Times

This from the New York Times, (bold emphasis added)

``Asia has already emerged more forcefully from recession than the United States and Europe, economic reports over the past month have shown. Now, that upturn here is starting — at least tentatively and in certain sectors — to feed into the job market. Hiring is starting to pick up again, recruiters and bankers say.

``Broad unemployment is still rising, a normal pattern even after economies begin to emerge from recession. But economists say that any early signs of job growth are a prerequisite for a more solid-based recovery — one in which more confident consumers, and not just huge government stimulus packages, can play a role in lifting the economy."

``Perhaps the most striking element in the new hiring: Almost a year after Lehman Brothers folded — roiling financial markets, spurring a remake of the banking landscape and feeding one of the worst recessions in modern history — it is the financial sector that is leading the way."

chart from stockcharts.com

The article didn't make any comparisons on the relative hiring rates on an industry basis.

Nevertheless, we can infer that the recent the recent spikes in the regional equity markets has had a significant influence on the emerging hiring dynamics in the region.
However, based on the FTSE Asian averages, unlike in the US where Finance has led the way, Asian Financials have had a mediocre performance on relative basis, where auto & trucks, technology and basic resources have basically assumed the role of market leaders.

Based on my understanding of the business cycles, if Asia's markets continue with its ascent over the longer period, with the same sectors leading the way, these industries would account for the long term production segment of the misallocation process whose financing would be facilitated by the financial industry. Of course, the finance sector would also cater to the consumer end.

Nevertheless the transitioning roles of the business cycle could be in play from which could signify as the initial symptom of an emerging bubble.