By Recto Mercene & Catherine N. Pillas
Online hiring in the Philippines chalked up a 7- percent growth between April 2016 and 2017, according to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI), a monthly gauge of online job-posting activity in the Philippines.
The retail sector saw the steepest growth in online hiring recording a 33-percent year-on-year (YOY) increase in e-recruitment in April.
The engineering, construction and real-estate sector reported a -6-percent YOY decline in online hiring, a further drop from March’s -5 percent.
When looking at occupational groups, customer-service roles continued to take lead in online demand at 30-percent YOY, a sharp 8-percent increase since March’s 22 percent. The group has also recorded consistent positive growth since December 2015.
“A strong domestic demand, regional trade recovery and a labor-intensive economy has kept the country’s labor market upbeat, in line with the MEI,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director of Monster.com in the Asia Pacific and Middle East.
“The country’s young work force is key and will play a pivotal role in boosting the economy, with local demand for workers in call centers and the business-process outsourcing remaining high on the list. The job market is also expected to grow with the prospective inflow of investment worth $925 million from the Middle East, which is estimated to produce around 26,000 jobs across various sectors.”
The MEI, launched in May 2015, has been collecting data since February 2014. It is a broad and comprehensive monthly analysis of online job-posting activity in the Philippines conducted by Monster Philippines (MP).
Based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large, representative selection of online career outlets, including MP, the MEI presents a snapshot of employer online-recruitment activity nationwide.
MEI said it has taken due care in compiling and processing the data available from various source, but does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any information.
Its parent company, Monster Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: MWW), is a premier global online employment solution that, for more than a decade, “strives to inspire people to improve their lives”.
With a local presence in key markets in North America, Europe, and Asia, Monster said it works for everyone by connecting employers with quality job seekers at all levels and by providing personalized career advice to consumers globally.
Monster Worldwide is a member of the S&P 500 index.