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Online hiring falls for banking sector, but strong in hospitality, IT

SINGAPORE — With a slowing economy and the Government warning of a bleak jobs market ahead, the latest data from an online employment index released on Monday (Oct 3) showed that there was a sharp decline in online job ads for the banking, financial service and insurance (BFSI) sector, as well as for real-estate professionals.

SINGAPORE — With a slowing economy and the Government warning of a bleak jobs market ahead,  the latest data from an online employment index released on Monday (Oct 3) showed that there was a sharp decline in online job ads for the banking, financial service and insurance (BFSI) sector, as well as for real-estate professionals.

On the other hand, there was a jump in hiring activity for the hospitality sector and the IT and telecommunications industries, the Monster Employment Index (MEI) Singapore revealed. 

The index by jobs site Monster.com tracks online job ads and records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity in Singapore.

Among the various industries, the BFSI sector has been hit the hardest — job ads from this segment have fallen the most year-on-year, showing a negative 5 per cent growth.

In terms of occupations, real-estate jobs registered negative 24 per cent growth year-on-year.

Other professions not faring so well included human resources and administrative jobs, as well as finance and accounts jobs, both at negative 8 per cent growth year-on-year.

The bright spots are in software, hardware and telecommunication jobs, which saw a 16-per-cent annual growth in hiring activities — the steepest growth recorded since January last year. This group also leads in online hiring for the third consecutive month. 

Among the industries, the IT and telecommunications sector and the business process outsourcing and IT-enabled services sector reported a 14 per cent surge in annual growth. This is the highest across industries monitored by the index. 

The hospitality sector comes in a close second with 13 per cent annual growth, followed by the government, public sector enterprise and defence sector at 7 per cent, and the education sector, also at 7 per cent. 

Commenting on the data, Mr Sanjay Modi, managing director of Monster.com for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, said that Singapore’s economy is “still seeing the effects of the global financial crisis”, and “slowed-down hiring activities” have continued across the board.

This slowdown may be compounded by many companies not planning to increase headcount, he added.

In particular, jobs in the manufacturing and BFSI sector would likely experience “weak growth” in online hiring, while jobs in the financial sector would be “strategically outsourced” to other markets such as India, Mr Modi said. 

Tech professionals in life sciences, media and entertainment, logistics and retail might see an increase in demand in the coming months, he said.

Commenting on the figures for real-estate jobs, Mr Dhirend Kumar Rai, 53, associate division director at property group ERA, said that the majority of property agents were not doing very well. Many had taken up part-time jobs as Uber or taxi drivers to “supplement their income”, while others have left the industry, he added.

“Our industry looks glamorous,” he said, “but a lot of people can’t cope with the expenses involved — in paying (for) advertisements, subscribing to data (services) ... (so they leave).” 

Mr Alan Cheong, research head at Savills Singapore, said that with stringent licensing and difficult examinations acting as major “stumbling blocks”, some property agents might be “dormant” even if they renewed their licences, coping instead with other part-time jobs. 

In the telecoms sector, a 36-year-old product manager observed that organisations are now cutting back on travel to “embrace” virtual communication technologies for the cost savings. 

Identifying himself only as Daniel, he said: “My company is still actively hiring ... and there isn’t a freeze on any headcount. There is still an increasing demand for services, and products of our nature, so we will still need people to be there to sell and promote.”

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