Depressing days loom over Singapore's online hiring for finance professionals

Activity shrunk 5% in August.

Online hiring activity is expected to be subdued in Singapore, with the finance sector likely to continue suffering from manpower crunch.

According to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI), online hiring activity saw no change in August from last year and is still treading slightly below 5%.

While the IT and hospitality sectors continue to be the bright spots, the banking, financial service, and insurance (BFSI) sector continued to report the sharpest decline in online hiring activity, at -5% YoY. This is after posting an 8% contraction in July.

According to Monster Managing Director Sanjay Modi, companies are not planning to increase headcount as the city-state bear the pressures of global headwinds.

"The BFSI sector is likely to continue to experience weak growth in online hiring. Jobs in the financial sector are likely to be strategically outsourced to other markets, such as India," he said.