Local e-recruitment activity grew at a robust 21% year-on-year in December 2022, following the easing of travel restrictions and reopening of borders.
PETALING JAYA: Job platform foundit, previously known as Monster, expects labour market in Malaysia to continue expanding in the coming months, following the month-on-month growth shown by its foundit Insights Tracker (fit).
Based on fit, the local e-recruitment activity grew at a robust 21% year-on-year (y-o-y) in December 2022, following the easing of travel restrictions and reopening of borders.
In a statement yesterday, foundit said the fit index stands at 76, with 3% month-on-month growth, driving a spree in hiring activity in December 2022.
“Over the last three months, there has been a robust 10% growth in hiring across sectors, indicating a persistent demand in the labour market,” foundit noted.
The job portal reported a 65% y-o-y increase in hiring activity for the local retail industry, primarily due to robust retail sales and an upward trend in consumer sentiment.
“The easing of Covid-19 pandemic rules and regulations, fast-growing retail business, along with border reopening to boost import and export and resume travel have aided the boost in retail jobs,” it added.
The hospitality sector also revealed a similar trend, with job demand rose significantly by 55% in December.
With a 34% increase in hiring activity, the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector also maintained an upward trend.
Commenting on job trends, foundit Asia-Pacific and Middle-East chief executive officer Sekhar Garisa said the labour market in Malaysia is showing strong and sustained demand, as reflected in the growth numbers reported by fit.
“This is a testament to the country’s success in easing travel restrictions and reopening its borders, which has led to a surge in demand across various sectors, particularly in retail, hospitality and BFSI,” he said.
He added that although some sectors have experienced difficulties owing to global economic uncertainty, the overall picture is of “resilience and growth”.
Sekhar believes the growth trend will persist in the upcoming months.
Other sectors showed hiring growth in December include logistics and transportation with an increase of 32% y-o-y.
The advertising, market research, public relations, media and entertainment segments collectively saw a 15% y-o-y increase in hiring, led by the surging digital marketing and artificial intelligence deployment.
In contrast, hiring in information technology (IT), telecom/Internet service providers and business process outsourcing or IT-enabled services dipped by 13% y-o-y, mainly due to the ongoing global economic uncertainties.
However, foundit said the monthly hiring demand in the sector has seen a notable increase.
Meanwhile, foundit highlighted that online recruitment has surpassed the year-ago level in eight out of nine occupation groups monitored by the tracker.
The hospital and travel sector has increased by 212% y-o-y as land and air borders reopened coming out from the pandemic, including the land border with Singapore.
Border reopening has also impacted sales and business development job roles, which increased by 28% y-o-y.
The finance and accounts sector recorded a 29% y-o-y increase, driven by the increased penetration of digitisation across all sectors.
Among all monitored groups, customer service is the only one to have registered a decline of 17% y-o-y in December 2022.
The fit tracker, formerly published as Monster Employment Index, is a comprehensive monthly analysis of online job posting activity conducted by foundit.
The fit presents a snapshot of employer online recruitment activity nationwide, based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large, representative selection of online career outlets.
