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HONG KONG -- Companies in Asia are reining in executive hiring plans this quarter, except in China, but that is not taking much pressure off salary inflation for new hires, a survey by recruitment firm Hudson showed Thursday.

Hong Kong, followed by Japan, will see the sharpest slowdown in executive hiring, with only 42 percent of survey respondents in the Chinese territory planning to hire this quarter, down from 57 percent in the second quarter.

Volatile financial markets coupled with problems in the US financial system were making companies in banking and finance more reluctant to expand headcount than other sectors, and that was hurting Hong Kong with its large financial sector, Hudson said.

In Japan, 46 percent of firms surveyed across sectors aim to increase headcount, down from 55 percent in the previous survey.

There was, however, no notable increase in staff cuts in either of those markets, Hudson said.

"Hiring managers are taking a more conservative approach. There's been a bit of shift from 'I'm going to grow' to 'I'm going to wait and see'," Mike Game, Asian chief executive of Chicago-based Hudson, told Reuters. "But while sentiment in the US and UK looks more negative, in Asia when we talk to hiring managers we don't perceive negativity, just a bit more caution."

While banks and other finance firms were on the one hand cautious about hiring, there had also been signs in the past two quarters of investment banks redeploying some staff to Asia from the United States and London because of faster business growth here, Game said.

As well as finance, hiring in manufacturing was also set to slow across Asia this quarter, Hudson said. The survey by Hudson Highland Group Inc. covered responses from 2,600 managers at multinationals across industries in China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

Forty-three percent of respondents said they would hire this quarter, down from 49 percent in the second quarter.

China continues to see strong demand for managerial talent as its economy is expected to grow by 10 percent this year. The Beijing Olympics next month is also prompting companies to step up their presence.

In the survey, 55 percent of respondents in China forecast a higher headcount this quarter, up from 52 percent in the second quarter survey.

Companies in China are having difficulty attracting enough suitably qualified staff to keep up with rapidly expanding business.

Game said talent retention remained a problem across Asia. Even in Hong Kong, with hiring set to slow, only 23 percent of firms surveyed said they could negotiate new hires' salaries down by 10 percent or more. In Japan, that figure fell to 10 percent of firms surveyed.

• China wants new global monetary system
• Solons caution gov’t on privatization