Online hiring in PH falls 30%, report shows

Online hiring activities in the Philippines fell sharply from October 2014 to October 2015, signaling underemployment in the labor market, according to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI), which is prepared by a unit of New York-listed online manpower firm Monster Worldwide Inc.

In a statement on Friday, monster.com said its index showed a 30-percent decline in hiring during the period.

The figure comes after the 16-percent fall recorded in the year through September 2015.

“Despite the strong growth in the Philippines’ economy, the country struggles to keep up with its growing population, leading to underemployment among the working population,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director, Monster.com (India, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong).

“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,” Modi said.

“At this point, the government may have to focus on boosting job opportunities in the agriculture and education sectors, on top of implementing more policies to manage the population and enhance employment in the country,” Modi added.

The MEI is a gauge of online job posting activity, which records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity locally.

In October, the banking, financial services and insurance sector—one of only two sectors registering positive growth—saw the steepest year-over-year growth at 25 percent, up from the 10 percent year-over-year growth registered in September.

The other sector that gained was information technology, telecommunications/Internet service provider, which was up 8 percent during the period.

The production/manufacturing, automotive and ancillary sector is once again the worst performing industry for online hiring, registering a

61-percent year-over-year decline. Logistics, courier, export and shipping also performed poorly, with a 48-percent decline, the index showed.

While none of the 10 occupational groups surveyed by the MEI registered positive year-over-year growth in October, customer service job roles experienced the least year-over-year decline at 2 percent.

This is the first time the job category did not grow in the past four months, it added.

Meanwhile, demand for hospitality and travel professionals remained the weakest, registering a 45-percent year-over-year decline.

The Monster Employment Index Philippines is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity.

The figures are 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.”

The index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry.

The measure was launched in May 2015, with data collected since February 2014.