MORE and more companies are turning online to hire talents as web-based recruitment in the Philippines continued in an upward trend, posting a 12-percent hike between May 2016 and 2017, the latest results of Monster Employment Index (MEI) showed.
With a highly stable macroeconomic environment backed by strong economic structures, Monster.com Managing Director for Asia Pacific and Middle East Sanjay Modi said the country is poised for sustainable-employment growth in the year ahead.
“This is evident from the latest BMI research results which said the Philippines’s business friendliness has made it favorable for investments, production activities and job creation,” he said.
“In line with our MEI findings, the Philippine Statistic Authority’s latest data showed the unemployment rate has fallen when compared to the corresponding period from last year,” he said.
The results showed the fifth positive annual growth for the country since January this year. Compared to a total of 95 job listings in May last year, there were 106 last month.
Still, the business-process outsourcing (BPO) and information-technology enabled services industry witnessed the strongest growth in online hiring in May 2017, with 138 employment placements online, or 30-percent greater than the 106 posted during the same period in 2016. This is the highest growth industry year-on-year (YoY) increase in web recruitment in May.
Currently, there are 1.2 million people employed in the BPO sector. This headcount is anticipated to grow to 1.8 million in the next five years as shown in the Information Technology-Business Process Association of the Philippines Roadmap 2022 report.
Logistics, courier, freight, transportation, import, export and shipping came in second with an increase of 17 percent from 108 to 126.
Following this were retail, up 16 percent, from 111 to 129; banking, financial services and insurance, up 12 percent, from 111 to 124; and advertising, market research, public relations, media and entertainment, up 8 percent, from 104 to 112. The lowest growth sectors were consumer goods/fast-moving consumer goods, food and packaged food, home appliance, garments/textiles/leather, gems and jewelry at 2 percent hike only, from 86 to 88; production/manufacturing, automotive and ancillary, up 2 percent, from 88 to 90; health care, negative 1 percent, from 98 to 97; and education, negative 3 percent, from 113 to 110.
The engineering, construction and real-estate sector fared the worst with a 6-percent decline (from 88 to 83) YoY in online hiring in May.
Based on occupational groups monitored by the index, customer-service talents continued to be in-demand as they led in online hiring from 107 to 150 or a 40-percent YoY growth. This is a 10-percent jump from 30 percent YoY growth recorded in April 2017.
Other top recruiters were software, hardware and telecom at 10 percent, from 106 to 117; purchase, logistics and supply chain, 8 percent, from 105 to 113; finance and accounts, 5 percent, from 113 to 119; and marketing and communications, 5 percent, from 113 to 119.
The occupations with less demand were hospitality and travel, 2 percent, from 83 to 85; sales and business development, with a flat growth by posting 10 job placements during the two periods in review; health care, negative 2 percent, from 97 to 95; engineering, production and real estate, negative 2 percent, from 86 to 84; and human resources and administration, negative 3 percent, from four to one.
“Being a shining spot in Asia’s economy, it is likely the country has come under the scrutiny of international players who can potentially and rapidly introduce new jobs in a short span of time. Even then, therein lies a need for business owners and employers alike to remain cautious and to always have sufficient plans to cushion potential headwinds,” Modi said.
The MEI is a monthly gauge of online job-posting activity, based on a real-time review of millions of employer—job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career web sites and online job listings across the nation.