Online hiring in PH declines

Online hiring in the Philippines continued to decline, albeit at a slower pace, in August 2015, according to the latest Monster Employment Index, which is prepared by a unit of New York-listed online manpower firm Monster Worldwide Inc.

In a statement on Monday, monster.com said its index showed online hiring in the Philippines falling 31 percent month-on-month in August, likely due to slowing growth worldwide. However, this figure was an improvement from July, when hiring was down 36 percent.

“The Philippines Statistics Authority saw continual contractions in Philippines’ manufacturing sectors due to weakening global demands. This has likely played a role in the decline in hiring across the Production/Manufacturing, Automotive and Ancillary sector, as seen in the Index,” Sanjay Modi, Managing Director at Monster.com (India, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong), said in the statement.

The Monster Employment Index is a gauge of online job posting activity, and was first released in the Philippines in May 2015. It records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity locally.

According to the latest data, the IT, Telecom/ISP sector – one of two industries exhibiting positive year-over-year growth this month – witnessed the steepest growth at 10 percent year-over-year.

This was faster than last month’s 7 percent growth year-over-year, and is also the sector’s third positive growth reported since June 2015, the company said.

Coming in just behind is the BFSI sector, which saw year-over-year growth of 2 percent after registering consecutive annual declines since March 2015.

The Production/ Manufacturing, Automotive and Ancillary sector saw the steepest decline in online hiring activities, with a year-over-year decline of 62 percent. The sector also registered its lowest activity since January 2015.

Across the occupational groups surveyed by the index, customer service roles continue to register the highest year-over-year growth at 9 percent, down, however, from July at 18 percent.