Online jobs hiring slows down in Q3

MANILA, Philippines — Online hiring activity continued to grow in the third quarter, but its expansion came at a slower pace compared to the numbers in the first half on the back of weakening economic outlook for the country.

Employment website Monster.com said overall sentiment for online hiring demand grew 13 percent, 10 percent and 12 percent year on year for July, August and September, respectively, based on the Monster Employment Index (MEI).

“Global trade tensions, together with the nation’s political landscape are affecting the Filipino economy and resulting in a weak outlook, with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund’s predictions that the Philippines will likely not hit its 2019 GDP growth targets,” said Krish Seshadri, CEO of Monster.com for APAC and the Middle East.

“This impacts online recruitment sentiment too. Although still positive overall, hiring has been slowing, as marked by the declining growth in the latest quarter after months of a strong upward trajectory late last year,” Seshadri said.

The advertising and marketing industry sustained its strong momentum, growing 26 percent year on year in both July and September, and 20 percent in August.

The business process outsourcing/information technology enabled service sector also experienced positive e-recruitment demand in the previous quarter, peaking in August with a 21 percent year on year expansion, and 18 percent growth for both July and September.

In terms of specific occupations, HR and admin professionals posted the highest growth of 35 percent for September, as well as 31 percent and 29 percent jump in July and August, respectively.

Finance and accounts talent were also in surging demand during the quarter, recording year-on-year growth numbers of 28 percent, 24 percent and 23 percent for the months of July, August and September, respectively.

“While Filipino businesses and regulators need to step up and start taking active measures to resolve this situation by improving economic openness, employers should focus on staff retention and retraining, so as to build stronger teams in order to weather out any potential rough patch ahead,” Seshadri 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 websites and online job listings across the Philippines.

It records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity locally.