More than 3 in 4 bilingual professionals in Korea saw their salaries rise this year, according to a global recruitment company specializing in finding senior-level bilingual officials for multinational companies.

In its Employee Insights Survey 2013, Robert Walters Korea said that 75.4 percent of the respondents saw a salary rise this year, among which 18 percent received an increase of over 10 percent, officials said Thursday.

Only 3.3 percent experienced a salary decrease and for 21.3 percent, the salary level remained unchanged from last year, the survey showed.

“Employer demand for highly skilled, bilingual Korean professionals continues to intensify the talent shortage in Korea,” said Anthony Modrich, country manager of Robert Walters Korea.

Most workers received their rise when switching companies, as employers generally offered the increase to attract professionals to newly created and replacement roles, he explained.

The industry with the most professionals who received salary increases was the manufacturing sector, while information technology specialists were the largest group to experience a salary decrease.

“The IT industry, as well as the consumer goods sector, has shown the widest salary variations, with both increases and decreases,” the official said.

“This trend reflects the large gap in the financial performances of the companies, especially amid the prolonged economic uncertainty.”

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)