The online demand for Filipino talent remained robust and posted a 17-percent growth in May 2019, according to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI).
In a news statement issued on Tuesday, Monster.com said the highest demand for Filipino workers came from the consumer goods/fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), healthcare and advertising sectors.
Internet-based hiring of workers in the FMCG sector grew 35 percent year-on-year in May; health care, 29 percent; and advertising, 20 percent, the sector’s first double-digit growth since February 2019.
“The online demand for talent in the Philippines has been consistently positive for quite some time now, despite the PSA’s recent Labor Force Survey report showing a decline in the number of Filipinos looking for jobs, as well as GDP [gross domestic product] growth deceleration to 5.6 percent in Q1 2019 from 6.2 percent in 2018,” said Abhijeet Mukherjee, chief executive officer of Monster.com for Asia Pacific and Middle East.
Industries that posted the lowest growth in May were observed in business-process outsourcing (BPO)/ information technology and IT-enabled services (ITES), 11 percent; education, 9 percent, respectively; and engineering, construction and real estate all at 7 percent.
In terms of occupations, Monster.com said human resource and administration professionals continued to lead annual growth in online hiring demand for the second consecutive month, charting a 28-percent growth in May.
This was followed by finance and accounting with a growth of 25 percent in May; hospitality and travel, 23 percent; purchase/logistics/supply chain, 23 percent; and marketing and communications, 22 percent.
“The Filipino government has been working toward improving economic openness for quite some time now, and foreign investment pledges are on the rise. This is a positive sign of the country bracing itself for a strong recovery from the first quarter performance which will boost all aspects of the local business landscape, including hiring,” Mukherjee said.
The MEI records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity locally.
It is based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large, representative selection of online career outlets.