Demand for HR roles plummets across SE Asia

Online job postings for HR have declined in Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia – where roles declined by a whopping 23% year-on-year.

The number of HR category jobs based in South Eastern Asia posted online has dropped 8.3% in the 12 months to April, a new study has found.

That figure was mirrored in the overall online hiring postings for the Singapore region, which fell 8% year-on-year compared to April 2014, according to the latest Monster Employment Index.

The Index, conducted by online employment site Monster.com, is based on real-time review of millions of job opportunities culled from a large representative of career websites and online job listings in Singapore.

“For the fourth month since January 2015, the Monster Employment Index Singapore saw annual decline again. However, the rate of decline slowed down between March and April 2015,” said Sanjay Modi, the managing director of Monster.com (India, Middle East Southeast Asia and Hong Kong). 

This month also marked the first time Monster.com has released MEI data for both Malaysia and the Philippines.

In Malaysia, HR category jobs were the lowest growing occupation year-on-year, with a whopping 23% decline.

In the Philippines, HR category roles fell by 27% in the same period, making it one of the lowest growth occupations. Other roles which measured even lower growth were Healthcare (-32%), Hospitality & Travel (-33%) and Engineering/Production (-44%).

The results come only a month the release of results of another study showing advertising for Singapore HR jobs was increasing 10% annually.

The Robert Walters Asia Job Index Q1 2015 revealed advertising volumes for HR positions across Asia rose by 18%, which it attributed to an increased demand for talent acquisition amid fierce competition in candidate markets.

“The rising importance of the HR function to include business partner and talent acquisition fuelled demand for these positions, with the advertising for HR roles increasing by 10% annually [in Singapore],” the report said.
Meanwhile, 

HR business partners and regional compensation and benefits managers were pegged as being some of the top HR roles in demand in Singapore in 2015 in the inaugural Human Resources Salary Guide by ZW HR Consulting Singapore.

These roles – along with talent acquisition managers, HRIS leaders, and professionals in talent management and organisation development – form the top five positions bringing the most “value added services” to business this year.