Singapore registers a steep plunge in online hiring activity for the third time in a row in March 2015 by 13 percent. The country has been experiencing consistent drop in online jobs available across different market sectors and segments.
According to the Monster Employment Index Singapore, the country has been registering negative year-on-year growth between March 2014 and 2015. The industry segments that have been most affected by this negative growth include home appliances, consumer goods, packaged items, jewellery, garments, textiles and leather. The online demand for real estate professionals saw the least decline in March 2015.
“As per the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, hiring activity will dampen owing to economic uncertainty for the next six months” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India/ Middle- East/ South East Asia/ Hong Kong).
Online hiring activity in healthcare was down by 4 percent, in shipping and marine was down by 6 percent, IT, Telecom/ISP and BPO/ITES sector witnessed a negative slump of being down by 6 percent, engineering, construction and real estate segments registered negative annual growth rate between 2014 and 2015 to experience 12 percent decline and BFSI sector experienced 15 percent decline in online hiring activity as well.
Consumer Goods/ FMCG, Home Appliance, Food & Packaged Food, Gems & Jewellery, Garments/ Textiles/ Leather, showed the steepest year-on-year decline among industry sectors at 17 percent down.
See: More Singapore firms holding back on new hires: Survey
Further online demand for twelve occupational groups saw a year-on-year dip with real estate being down by one percent, sales and business development by 10 percent, customer service by 10 percent, finance and accounts by 14 percent, saw the steepest fall since January 2012.
Marketing and communication job postings retracted by 10 percent year-on-year in March 2015, while logistics and supply chain activity slowed down more sharply by 11 percent, according to the recruitment analysis on the website.
The hospitality and travel online job segment experienced the steepest fall this year in March 2015 to be down by 15 percent. Based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large, representative selection of online career outlets, including Monster Singapore, the Monster Employment Index presents a snapshot of employer online recruitment activity nationwide.
In Malaysia, the online hiring activity in sectors such as public relations, advertising, media and entertainment industry registered lowest year-on-year growth at -27%, according to Monster Employment Index Malaysia.
“The Monster Employment Index Malaysia has registered an annual decline of 23%, although month-on-month online recruitment has seen positive growth of 9% in April 2015,” Modi added.
“The volume of job advertisements in the Asian market on the whole has eased up, indicating cautious effort of recruiters to hire. A shortage of qualified and skilled candidates and higher salary demands has prompted this slowdown in hiring activity in the local market.”
Moving to Philippines, the online advertising recruitment sector has seen a drip by 43 percent in advertising, media, and marketing and communication industry.
Talking about decline in online job hiring activity in Philippines, Modi states, “The Monster Employment Index Philippines has registered a decline of 31% in the past year, with the BPO/ITES industry showing the most amount of promise.
The Philippines’ economy has recently emerged as a global hub for BPO, currently employing over one million people. As production and manufacturing jobs continue their steady decline, it is important for the country to focus on high growth industries to continue to create jobs and encourage growth,” Mumbrella Asia quotes.
Also read: Hiring downtrend in second half of 2015, says survey
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