Singapore continues to be a hotbed of opportunities across the IT, Telecom/ ISP and BPO/ ITES sectors, maintaining a positive outlook with 13% growth this month, as reported by the Monster Employment Index (MEI).
While the country reports zero growth in overall online hiring, this sector champions as the best performing industry when compared with other Southeast Asian players.
The MEI is a monthly gauge of online job hiring activity by Monster.com, which records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth in e-recruitment, including statistics from the IT/Telecom sector.
The Philippines continues to stay positive, however slumped slightly from 3% year-on-year in September to 1% year-on-year this October in demand for hiring IT professionals.
Malaysia continues to report a decline and remains the weakest at -18% year-on-year.
Observing the annual e-recruitment landscape for Software, Hardware and Telecom talent, Singapore and the Philippines exhibit strong signs of demand in hiring, reporting an increase year-on-year with 25% and 7% growth respectively. Both markets have consistently reported an upward trend when compared to last few MEI indices.
Malaysia recorded a -10% year-on-year decline in October. While this is the weakest amongst the three markets, it shows signs of a marginal recovery from September’s steep decline of -40% year-on-year.
“Despite an overall weak labour market, there is an upward trend in hiring for IT professionals, as cloud computing, software automation and other innovative technologies continue to disrupt the region. MNCs will continue to drive more opportunities in this region, but key players in Singapore are small and medium businesses, which are hugely driving the talent for key, niche IT talent,” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com – APAC and Middle East.
“Singapore’s dominance as a favourable business location and competitive workforce continues to offer enterprises – especially start-ups – an attractive spot to further their investments. This is a major catalyst aiding more and more IT hiring in this market.”