Decline in online hiring for Malaysia’s banking, financial services

ONLINE hiring activity in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) industry has been on a plunge since January 2018, recording yet another double-digit decline in November at -12% year-on-year, according to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI).

In correlation with the sluggish hiring sentiments in the BFSI sector, Finance & Accounts job roles also saw the most-notable annual decline among occupation categories, down 10% year-on-year. This marks the ninth consecutive month of decline for the role.

Malaysia also registered nine straight months of decline in overall online recruitment activity, down 5% year-on-year in November.

The Monster Employment Index (MEI) is a gauge of online job posting activity compiled monthly by Monster.com. It records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity locally.

The IT, telecom/ISP and BPO/ITES and oil & gas industries were yet again the only two out of the nine industries monitored by the Index that exhibited growth, up 28% and 16% year-on-year, respectively.

On a six month-basis, both sectors also recorded strong growth, up 35% and 16% respectively.

Among occupation categories, customer service roles registered the most notable growth in November, up 6% year-on-year, followed by software, hardware, telecom professionals, up 3%.

Demand for sales & business development professionals was also on the nine-month, double-digit decline wagon as well, down 10% year-on-year in November.

“Online hiring in the BFSI industry in Malaysia has been on an 11-month decline since the start of the year. According to research houses, macro policy uncertainty post-GE14 seems to be having a slight dampening effect on the banking’s sector growth, and analysts also expects the sector’s core earnings growth to come in lower this year,” said Abhijeet Mukherjee, CEO of Monster.com – APAC and Middle East.

“The finance sector was once driven by human judgment and decision-making, but this is slowly changing with emerging technology, in particular intelligent automation. As the needs of banks change, they will sharpen their focus to recruiting people with specific technology expertise.

“Now more than ever, banks need leaders who understand the kinds of transformation that are possible and prepare to change management effectively. Developing a talent strategy that addresses widespread retraining; identifying the skills and expertise needed to compete in the future; and attracting and retaining the right talent.”

The Monster Employment Index Malaysia is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity, 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 Malaysia.

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.