Online recruitment in IT & BPO sectors remains slow: Monster

• Malaysia sees biggest decline in Q3
• Pace of decline slows in Singapore and Philippines

THE Philippines is still leading the way for online hiring activity across the IT (information technology), telecom/ ISP (Internet service provider) and BPO/ ITES (business process outsourcing/ IT-enabled services) sectors, compared with the Singaporean and Malaysian markets, according to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI) data.
 
The MEI, a monthly gauge of online job hiring activity, records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity in various markets, online recruitment company Monster Worldwide Inc said in a statement.
 
In the Philippines, these industries recorded the highest online hiring activity for September 2015, with a 3% year-over-year (YoY) growth. This is a marginal increase from the 2% YoY growth recorded for August 2015.
 
It is, once again, the only market that experienced positive growth for this sector, Monster said in its statement.
 
In Singapore, although overall growth is still in decline, the pace of this slowdown has halted, the company said.
 
Singapore witnessed a -2% YoY ‘growth’ for September 2015, up from the -10% between August 2014 and 2015.
 
Malaysia recorded the steepest YoY decline for the second consecutive month at -16%. The sector is also one of the lowest growth industries in the month of September.

With regard to jobs in Software, Hardware and Telecom, none of the markets experienced positive YoY year growth in the online demand for talent, with Malaysia seeing the steepest YoY decline across the three markets surveyed, at -35%.
 
The Philippines and Singapore recorded a -11% and -10% YoY growth respectively.
 
“As the rest of the markets in South-East Asia struggle to see growth in online hiring in the IT sectors, the Philippines is rapidly gaining growth momentum and is well on track to hit its job generation goals in the wider IT/ BPO industry,” said Monster.com (India, Middle East, South-East Asia, Hong Kong) managing director Sanjay Modi.
 
“The demands for Software, Hardware and Telecom professionals in the country are also likely to see an increase in the coming months as foreign firms seek to form partnerships with local firms, making way for more job opportunities along the way.
 
“Growth momentum in Malaysia’s IT/ BPO industry is still slow as of now. Once major hubs in Kuala Lumpur and Penang have been fully developed in 2020, hiring activities are expected to start to pick up from there,” he added.
 
The Monster Employment Index is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity, based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career websites and online job listings across Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
 
The Index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry, Monster said.
 
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