KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 28 ― Online recruitment in Malaysia fell further in September as companies cut back on new hiring due to concerns over the negative global economic outlook, according to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI) Malaysia.
The MEI ― managed by global online employment site Monster.com ― found that e-recruitment dropped 25 per cent year-on-year last month.
This was a further decline of four per cent in growth figures compared to year-on-year e-recruitment statistics registered in August this year.
“The overall decline in the labour market is likely due to the negative economic outlook globally,” said Sanjay Modi, managing directo of, Monster.com (India, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong).
The MEI is a gauge of online job posting activity, and was first released in Malaysia in May 2015. It records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity locally.
Across the nine industries monitored by the Index, no sector registered positive year-over-year growth.
The retail sector declined the least in online recruitment activity, falling 3 per cent while the oil-and-gas sector dropped the most, losing a quarter of its previous recruitment activity.
But Monster noted that demand for sales and marketing roles will remain high due to the high profit yielded in the respective sectors.
“With the growing popularity of digital banking and information technology, demand for talent in these tech-related roles is also likely to increase as we move forward,” the index found.
Malaysia's growth has slowed due to tumbling commodity prices and lower exports, causing the ringgit to plunge to 1998 Asian financial crisis levels.
The World Bank had recently maintained its forecast of Malaysia’s economic growth at 4.7 per cent for this year, slower than the 6 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) expansion last year.
