Demands for advertising and marketing professionals remain steady in Southeast Asia, PH reports sharpest growth

SOUTHEAST ASIA – The demand for advertising and marketing professionals in Southeast Asia displayed positive signs of growth in September, with the exception of Malaysia.

These findings are the result of the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI), a monthly gauge of online hiring activity across Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, tracked by Monster.com. It comprises data of overall hiring activity in each country, as well as specific data in the advertising and marketing sector.

The Philippines reported the sharpest growth with an 8% year-on-year increase in online hiring activity in the Advertising, Market Research, Public Relations, Media and Entertainment space in September. This is a 5% increase from the 3% year-on-year growth reported in August 2017.

Singapore also reported growth in the same sector in September, at 3% year-on-year.

Malaysia remains as the only market experiencing a decline in online hiring in the Advertising, Market Research, Public Relations, Media and Entertainment space, with a 13% decline in jobs offered between September 2016 and 2017.

Advertising, Market Research, Public Relations, Media and Entertainment Sector:

Jobs for marketing and communications professionals remained slow-moving with little to no growth across the three markets the Index monitored.

Malaysia registered the steepest decline at -5% year-on-year, while demand for these professionals came to a standstill in Singapore.

The Philippines was the only market registering growth, at a modest 4% year-on-year increase.

Marketing & Communications jobs:

“Martech is a technologically-driven discipline that is disrupting this sector, demanding niche and technologically adept talent with a flair for creativity. As such, employers and aspiring talent have to realise that the role of the future marketer has fundamentally changed,” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com – APAC and Middle East.

“While CMO’s are under immense pressure to extract more value with fewer resources who are highly-productive, they are also constantly re-evaluating what work will look like for future marketing teams. This makes it crucial for all aspiring talent to stay hungry for more knowledge and also understand the major platforms used by consumers and other target audiences. Needless to say, this requires new skills and new ways of thinking.”

The Monster Employment Index tracks online job posting activity each month, 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 Singapore, Malaysia and 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.

See below for all trends across Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines for September 2017:

Singapore Highlights

• Singapore saw a 4% year-on-year decline in online hiring activity in September 2017, according to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI)

• The BFSI sector saw the highest growth in online hiring activity at 14% year-on-year, while the Government/ PSU/ Defence sector reported the most decline at -13% year-on-year

• Health Care jobs saw the most demand at 10% year-on-year

• Roles in Customer Service registered the sharpest annual decline at -13%

Philippines Highlights

• Online recruitment activities in the Philippines surged in September, according to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI)

• The Retail sector reported the sharpest growth in online hiring activity at 21% year-on-year, while the Health Care sector recorded the steepest fall at -5% year-on-year

• Software, Hardware, Telecom talent were the highest in demand with 12% growth, while Health Care professionals saw the steepest annual decline at -6%

Malaysia Highlights

• Online recruitment activity in Malaysia jumped up 7% between September 2016 and 2017, according to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI)

• The Oil and Gas sector reported the highest growth in online hiring activity at 37% year-on-year

• The Retail sector saw the steepest decline at -36% year-on-year

• Demands for Software, Hardware, Telecom professionals reported the highest annual growth in hiring at 34% year-on-year, while Customer Service talent were the least in demand at -50% year-on-year