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Hiring for HR and admin roles in Singapore continues to slump

According to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI), a broad and comprehensive monthly analysis of online job posting activity in Singapore, Philippines and Malaysia, the online recruitment of human resources and admin professionals continues to slump across the region. Hiring has declined year-on-year (YoY) in all three markets when comparing October 2015 and October 2016.

In Singapore, the demand for HR talent undergoes a continual decline over recent months, with an annual drop of 11% in October, which is also the lowest year-on-year drop of the three markets. In fact, Singapore has reported zero change in online hiring for the third consecutive month.

The report showed that that IT, telecom/ISP and BPO/ITES sector had the steepest growth in online hiring activity at 13% YoY, while the BFSI sector reported the steepest decline dropping by 9%. Additionally, software, hardware, yelecom jobs are in the greatest demand at 25% YoY, while HR & admin roles have registered the sharpest decline, dropping by 11%.

As for the Malaysia market, it reported a 12% YoY drop in online recruitment activity. In fact, “not one job sector registered positive annual growth in online hiring”. The production/ manufacturing, automotive and ancillary sector is the only sector that saw zero change, while the retail sector saw steepest annual decline by 23%. Additionally, sales & business development roles reported the steepest annual growth at 20%, while customer service roles were the least in demand dropping by 55% YoY.

“Hiring sentiments in all three markets continue to weaken amidst global market gyrations. Not surprisingly, slowdown in online hiring of HR & Admin professionals has remained feeble over the last few months in line with this,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director at Monster.com – APAC and Middle East.

“Typically, the fourth quarter presents the most complex hiring dynamics of the year – a mix of seasonal hiring trends coupled with end-of-year financial and budget manoeuvring, and setting of hiring targets affect such decisions company wide.”

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