Job hunters grapple with drastic drop in online work ads

Industries’ hiring sentiment will likely remain cautious.

Singaporean jobseekers will have to brace for sustained sluggishness in hiring sentiment in 2016, according to the Singapore Recruitment Market Overview whitepaper released by Monster.com. 

The paper stated that based on data collected from the Monster Employment Index (MEI)—a gauge of online job posting activities recording the industries and occupations showing the high growth in recruitment activity—annual growth since January 2015 has been negative. As at August 2015, the YoY growth saw a 10% decline.

Monster.com’s Managing Director Sanjay Modi asserted that much of the slowdown is driven by external factors, such as China’s sluggish economy and the influence of the declining oil industry, which eventually trickled down to Singapore’s labour market.

Moreover, productivity has also remained weak in Singapore, while the constrained labour market has continued to push up real median incomes. These factors play into a more wary hiring approach across industries, which is likely to persist in 2016, Modi added.