Online hiring in Singapore continues climb with 13% growth in April: Monster.com

ONLINE hiring in Singapore continued its climb in April with 13 per cent year-on-year growth, according to data from the Monster Employment Index (MEI) on Tuesday.

April's growth was dominated by IT, telecommunications, business process outsourcing (BPO) and IT-enabled services industries (ITES), which saw online hiring rising 39 per cent year on year, easing marginally from 40 per cent the month before.

The advertising, market research, public relations, media and entertainment sector also rose 25 per cent year on year in online hiring growth, while e-recruitment for the shipping and marine industry saw its steepest annual growth since March 2013 at 8 per cent.

Meanwhile, the production/manufacturing, automotive and ancillary sector exhibited the least amount of growth at 3 per cent among industries in April.

By occupation, software, hardware and telecommunication professionals saw the greatest spike in demand with 27 per cent year-on-year growth. This is followed by marketing and communication professionals, which saw a 14 per cent hike in online demand in the same period.

On the other hand, real estate professionals saw the steepest decline in demand, falling 10 per cent year-on-year, followed by healthcare professionals, which fell 1 per cent.

Abhijeet Mukherjee, CEO of Monster.com, Asia-Pacific and Middle East, said hiring intentions in Singapore remain "cautiously positive" amid external headwinds and economic restructuring.

Therefore, jobseekers can expect a stable hiring environment in the second quarter, particularly for specialists in the IT and banking, financial services and insurance sectors. Rapid technological change also means employees have to adapt and upskill quickly, he said.

"While the government instils a culture of lifelong learning, businesses too must share the load and invest quickly in skill-focused initiatives and incentives to retrain current staff," Mr Mukherjee said.

The MEI is a monthly gauge of online job posting activities. Monster.com tracks the industries and occupations with the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity within Singapore.