Singapore banking, finance sector posts -4% growth in online hiring in February

The sluggish economy is making employers cautious.

Sluggish economic growth throughout the region has hurt Singapore’s bank, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) industry, as online recruitment activities in the sector saw another slump in February.

The Monster Employment Index (MEI) reveals that Singapore posted a -4% YoY growth in the online hiring in BFSI in February. This is down from 0% between January 2015 and 2016, putting the city-state’s BFSI sector among the lowest growth industries in the market.

Among the three markets covered by MEI, Singapore reported the least decline in online demand for finance and accounts roles with -13% drop YoY in February. In the same timeframe, demands in Malaysia -29% decline YoY, and Philippines saw -16% pullback YoY.

“As global economic uncertainty continue to rise, economic growth, in Singapore and Malaysia especially, remains slow,” comments Sanjay Modi, Monster.com’s managing director.

“Some employers within businesses in the banking sectors across the board are not in a hurry to hire and have even resorted to laying-off employees to cope with the challenging business environment,” Modi further stated.

Meanwhile, Singapore recorded -7% YoY decline in overall online hiring in February, a dip from -2% recorded between January 2015 and 2016. The production/manufacturing, automotive and ancillary sector reported the sharpest growth at 9% YoY, while the hospitality sector saw the biggest slump at -10%.

Customer service roles saw the greatest growth in demand at 2% YoY, while the software, hardware and telco roles posted the steepest pullback at -19% YoY.