Online hiring continues to be on the downtrend
ONLINE hiring continued to be gloomy as Malaysia reported a 12-per-cent decline from October 2015 to October 2016.
According to the Monster Employment Index (MEI), none of the domestic job sectors in Malaysia registered annual growth in online hiring.
However, the production/ manufacturing, automobile and ancillary sector was the only sector that did not register a decline in online hiring, at zero-per-cent change between October 2015 and 2016.
The retail industry was the worst performer with the steepest annual decline of 23 per cent.
In the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry, Malaysia saw the trend of declining online hiring in the fourth quarter from August-October.
In October, the industry’s online hiring dropped by a significant 15 per cent from October 2015.
Despite that, sales and business development-related occupations continued to witness the strongest year-on-year demand at 20%.
In contrast, customer service professionals fared the worst in online hiring in October, exhibiting a massive 55-per-cent annual decline.
Managing director of APAC and the Middle East for Monster.com Sanjay Modi said Malaysia’s growth in the third quarter had been better than expected, driven by private consumption – a sign of the country’s domestic economic resilience.
However, hiring activity remains sluggish as companies are still very wary of possible economic headwinds brought about by external factors.
“On a positive note, the government is making great effort to get more foreign direct investments to come through into the nation to create better job opportunities,” he added.
Regionally, online hiring in Singapore and the Philippines also appeared to be unexciting as both countries recorded no annual growth in overall online recruitment.