Malaysia sees slump in demand for marketing professionals

It seems as though Malaysian professionals in the marketing space need to hold on tight to their current roles as Malaysia sees a slump in hiring activities in the space.Malaysia reported -4% year-over-year decline in online job postings in the Advertising, Market Research, Public Relations, Media and Entertainment sectors. Despite the drop, month-on-month hiring activities have seen consistent growth. The sector’s three-month growth momentum has also exhibited an improvement of 10%.This is a monthly gauge of online job hiring activities across Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines. It records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity and includes data from the advertising and marketing sectors.Meanwhile next door in Singapore, the sector reported 2% growth year-over-year, a slight dip from 6% year-over-year reported in March 2016. Philippines recorded 31% year-over-year growth in online hiring activity in the same sector, emerging as the second best-performing industry in the market. Growth momentum within the sector has also seen tremendous improvement since the start of 2016, where it was previously reporting consistent declines.“As more businesses enter and invest in the Philippines market, hiring activities across multiple sectors - marketing included - is likely to continue to see a spike. While there seems to be a drop in demand for Marketing and Communications-specific roles on the whole, there are still plenty of startups and smaller to mid-sized agencies seeking qualified candidates to join their teams,” Sanjay Modi, managing director of Monster.com (India, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong) said.When looking at the online demand for Marketing & Communications roles, none of the markets reported positive hiring activities.Malaysia reported the least decline in demand among the three markets, at -1% year-over-year. This is a 7% drop from 6% reported between March 2015 and 2016.“With the continuous evolution of the industry, and as businesses become more focused on implementing data-driven solutions, data science is an increasingly sought-after skill. Employers today are likely to prefer marketers equipped with these skills over those who excel in traditional marketing,” Modi added.Malaysia Highlights:Malaysia saw -18% year-over-year dip in online hiring in April 2016, falling 7% from -11% reported between March 2015 and 2016Between April 2015 and 2016, none of the job sectors and occupational groups registered positive annual growthThe Advertising, Market Research, Public Relations, Media & Entertainment sector reported the least annual decline at -4%, while the Logistic, Courier/ Freight/ Transportation, Shipping/ Marine sector continued to report the sharpest year-over-year plunge at -35%Annual demand for Marketing & Communications professionals reported the least decline at -1%, whereas the Software, Hardware, Telecom roles experienced the steepest drop in demand at -38% year-over-year