Aggressive hiring in Asia and the Middle East helped boost results for HSBC Holdings PLC at year-end.
The London-based firm added almost 5,600 positions to its ranks in 2010, bringing headcount to about 295,000, a 1.9% increase. The largest growth was in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, regions targeted for expansion months ago.
At the same time, HSBC trimmed its workforce in North America by almost 1,600 jobs, a 4.5% decrease to 33,865, as it sold its car loan operations in the U.S.
HSBC was even more aggressive with pay, setting aside almost $20 billion in compensation and benefits, a 7% increase over 2009 levels. Average pay per employee swelled to $67,227, a raise of $3,431, or 5%.
The bullish HR strategy produced results as the firm more than doubled full-year profit to $13.2 billion.
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