Hiring outlook in SEA IT sector hopeful, but Malaysia plunges: Monster

• Philippines outperforms its SEA counterparts in IT and BPO hiring
• Singapore experiences slow growth, Malaysia plunges 11%

 
OVERALL online hiring within the South-East Asian IT, Telecom/ ISP and BPO/ITES sectors continue to witness moderate growth in April, in spite of the falling demand for Software, Hardware and Telecom professionals, according to online recruitment firm Monster.com.
 
This is reflected in the latest round of Monster Employment Index (MEI) data, a monthly gauge of online job hiring activity by the company.
 
The Index records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity, including data from the IT sectors, it said in a statement.
 
The Philippines reported an 11% year-over-year (YoY) increase in hiring activities in the IT, Telecom/ISP (Internet service provider) and BPO/ITES (business process outsourcing/ IT-enabled services) sector, the highest growth recorded among the three markets monitored by the Index.
 
This is the Philippines’ first positive growth since January 2016. Month-on-month hiring activities have also been seeing slow but steady growth.
 
Malaysia saw an 11% YoY drop in hiring activities. Despite the dip, the market’s pace of decline has eased up since the start of the year, Monster.com said.
 
Like the Philippines, its month-on-month hiring activities have seen slight growth.

Singapore’s annual growth in hiring activities has been fluctuating, seeing a marginal 1% growth between April 2015 and 2016. This is an eight-point plunge from the 9% YoY growth recorded in March.
 

 
When looking at Software, Hardware and Telecom roles, none of the markets witnessed positive growth in hiring demand between April 2015 and 2016.
 
The group saw the steepest drop in demand in Malaysia, which reported a -39% annual decline.
 
Singapore recorded -4% YoY decline in job demands, the least among the three markets.
 
The role is also amongst the occupations recording the least decline in the market. The Philippines followed closely behind at -5% YoY, a 23-point leap from the -28% YoY reported in March.
 

 
“Of late, Singapore's tech startup companies have been in the venture capitalist limelight, which has likely helped to maintain job demands within the IT sector,” said Monster.com (India, Middle East, South-East Asia, Hong Kong) managing director Sanjay Modi.
 
“There has also been increasing emphasis on Singaporean talent to keep up with tech developments in order to remain relevant in their roles. This shift in focus can help companies save on manpower hours and costs that would otherwise have been incurred from employee layoffs.
 
“Malaysia is well on its way to become an IT hub, but its challenge lies in locating talent qualified enough for many specialist roles.
 
“The Philippines’ attractive labour market has been a key catalyst to growing hiring numbers across most sectors, including IT-related sectors. In the coming months, demands for BPO-IT professionals and web developers are likely to continue to soar,” he added.
 
The MEI 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, Monster.com said.
 
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, it added.
 
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