Dear job hunters: don't bother applying online

Singapore reports zero online hiring for two months in a row.

Online recruitment has stalled in Singapore, as the country reported zero percent growth in activity For September year-on-year. According to the Monster Employment Index (MEI), this is the second consecutive month online hiring growth has remained at zero. 

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

In September, the IT, Telecom/ISP and BPO/ITES sector reported 9% annual growth – the highest across the industries monitored by the MEI. This is a slight 5% drop from 14% year-over-year growth registered between August 2015 and 2016.

The BFSI sector reported -11% year-over-year drop in online hiring, the steepest across all industries monitored by the MEI. This is also a further 6% drop from -5% year-over-year reported in August 2016.

When looking at occupational groups, Software, Hardware, Telecom jobs remain in the lead with an 18% annual growth in hiring activities – its steepest growth recorded since December 2014. This is a 2% improvement from 16% year-over-year recorded in August.

HR & Admin talent saw the greatest plunge in online hiring at -12% year-over-year in September, faring the worst among the occupational groups. “Singapore’s job market continues to bear the brunt of the slow Chinese economy, on top of the Brexit shockwaves, causing overall hiring intentions to remain weak. Economic growth also fell below expectations during this time, and it is likely that the hiring dry spell will prolong,” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director of Monster.com – APAC and Middle East.

“The BFSI sector is especially affected, given that many local banks have operations in China, and are directly affected by the growth crisis. Nevertheless, the initiatives put in place to turn Singapore into a SmartNation by 2025 is likely to improve the situation in the coming years, particularly in the IT sector, given the growing needs for professionals in the cyber security, coding and programming space.”

The Monster Employment Index Singapore 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 Singapore. 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.