KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 — Hiring activities in Malaysia is expected to grow this year on the back of the strong sentiment during the second half of 2017, recruitment portals Monster.com and Jobstreet.com have said.
According to the latest round-up of online hiring insights from the Monster Employment Index (MEI) in Malaysia, 2017 ended with a positive 2 per cent year-on-year growth in December.
“Reflecting this trend, talent from the IT, telecom, software and hardware sectors will remain in high demand, coping with the growing need for talent with niche skills.
“The evolving and changing economic conditions call for businesses to focus on the importance of re-skilling as key to unlocking the potential of transformative new technology,” Monster.com Asia-Pacific and Middle East managing director Sanjay Modi said in a statement.
Malaysia’s economic growth continued to be supported by a rise in hiring for sectors like IT, oil and gas, manufacturing and automotive, he said.
Despite that, he said the migration to online services and rise of e-commerce and automation has impacted the traditional retail sector and customer service jobs.
“We need to develop an agile attitude and have the ability to constantly adapt and develop throughout our career in the face of the accelerating pace of technological change,” he added.
The MEI is collected monthly to gauge online job posting activities across the industries and occupations that shows the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity.
Meanwhile, JobStreet.com in its Job Outlook Report 2018, indicated that both employers and jobseekers have a more optimistic outlook this year.
“The key drivers of this sentiment are the rise of start-ups, expansion of local businesses and entry of foreign companies that will lead to job creation and the need for diversified skills.
“Therefore, we can expect both job hunting and hiring activity to pick up in 2018,” Jobstreet.com Malaysia’s country manager Chook Yuh Yngshe said at the Malaysia Career & Training Fair held at Mid Valley Exhibition Centre recently.
According to its report, stronger job opportunities are expected than what was available last year, with 30 per cent of Malaysian employers indicating an increase in hiring activity, which is a 12 per cent increase year-on-year.
Meanwhile, 15 per cent of the employers surveyed have mentioned that they will maintain the same hiring level in 2018 as they did last year.
A notable drop of 5 per cent in “hiring freeze” was observed compared with last year, affirming the growing momentum in hiring activity.
