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Malaysia: Retail hiring rises by 65% y-o-y, 21% improvement on e-recruitment in Dec 2022, says foundit
KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 1): Talent platform foundit reported a 65% increase in hiring activity in Malaysia’s retail industry year-on-year (y-o-y) in December 2022 due to robust retail sales and an upward trend in consumer sentiment.
“The easing of Covid rules and regulations, fast-growing retail business, along with borders reopening to boost import/export and resume travel have aided the boost in retail jobs,” it said in a statement on Wednesday (Feb 1).
“Similar trends were observed in the hospitality sector, where job demand increased significantly by 55%. With a 34% increase in hiring activity, the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) sector also maintained its upward trend.”
Other sectors showed hiring growth in December 2022, including logistics and courier with an increase of 32%. Meanwhile, the advertising, market research, public relations, media and entertainment segments collectively saw a 15% increase due to surging digital marketing and artificial intelligence deployment.
Sectors such as production and manufacturing in automotive improved by 2%, as well as engineering, construction and real estate (2%), and oil and gas (1%).
In contrast, hiring on IT, telecom/internet service provider and business process outsourcing/information technology (IT)-enabled services has dipped by 13% y-o-y, and hiring in recent months has slowed down due to ongoing global economic uncertainties.
In terms of online recruitment, the hospital and travel sector has increased by 212% as land and air borders reopen from the pandemic, including Singapore’s land borders. Border reopening has also impacted sales and business development job roles, which increased by 28%.
The penetration of digitalisation across all sectors affected finance and accounts roles by 29% which registered increasing demand and growth since April 2021.
“However, among all monitored functions, customer service is the only one to have registered a de-growth of 17% in December 2022,” said foundit.
Malaysia also recorded a robust 21% y-o-y growth in e-recruitment — based on foundit’s Insight Tracker — due to Malaysia’s easing travel restrictions and border openings.
The tracker — formerly known as Monster Employment Index — offers a snapshot of employer online recruitment activity by analysing online job posting activities using a real-time review of employer job opportunities from a large, representative selection of online career outlets.
Malaysia stands at 76 on the tracker as of Dec 31, 2022, based on the 3% month-on-month growth after a hiring spree in December 2022, in addition to a robust 10% growth in hiring across sectors — signalling a demand in the labour market.
“The job market in Malaysia is showing strong and sustained demand, as reflected in the impressive growth numbers reported by the foundit Insights Tracker,” said foundit chief executive officer Sekhar Garisa.
“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.
“The overall picture is of resilience and growth, even though some sectors have experienced difficulties due to global economic uncertainty. We believe that this trend will persist in the upcoming months,” he added.
Source: https://www.theedgemarkets.com/node/653728