Online hiring drops 30% as of October

MANILA, Philippines - Online hiring in the country continued to drop year-on-year in October, according to Monster Worldwide Inc.

The firm’s Monster Employment Index (MEI) released yesterday showed online hiring in the country fell 30 percent between October 2014 and 2015.

The latest result is a sharp decline from the 16 percent year-on-year contraction in September 2015.

The MEI is a gauge of online job posting activity, showing the industries and occupations with the highest and lowest growth in e-recruitment activity locally.

The index was first released in May this year.

The latest MEI showed the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector saw the highest year-on-year growth of 25 percent in October, up from the 10 percent year-on-year uptick registered in September.

Apart from the BFSI sector, only the Information Technology, Telecom sector had a positive performance in October, posting an eight percent year-on-year increase.

Other sectors such as Business Process Outsourcing; Hospitality; Education; Health Care; Consumer Goods/Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Food and Packaged Food, Home Appliance, Garments/Textiles/Leather, Gems and Jewellery; Engineering, Construction and Real Estate; Logistic, Courier/Freight/Transportation, Import/Export, Shipping; and Production/Manufacturing, Automotive and Ancillary registered declines in October.

The Production/Manufacturing, Automotive and Ancillary sector was the worst industry for online recruitment activity as it registered a 61 percent year-on-year contraction in October.

“Despite the strong growth in the Philippine economy, the country struggles to keep up with its growing population, leading to underemployment among the working population. There may have been a surge in the number of job roles created, including government job roles, but candidates may not necessarily be equipped with the right skill sets for the jobs,” Sanjay Modi, managing director of Monster.com for India, Middle East, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong said.

He said the government will need to take steps to provide more employment opportunities.