Online hiring in Malaysia is expected to continue to grow in line with the projected growth of Malaysia’s main economic sector, as per the Monster Employment Index (MEI).

According to MEI, the overall annual growth in online hiring registered a 7% year-on-year (y-o-y) increase in April 2019 with eight out of nine industries showing positive annual growth.

In particular, online hiring activity in the information technology, telecom/Internet service provider and business process outsourcing/information technology enabled services industry saw the highest y-o-y growth of 43% cent in April 2019.

“Notably, retail sector exhibited a significant uptrend in e-recruitment activity for the second consecutive month in April 2019 with an increase of 26% on an annual basis,” MEI said, adding that the oil and gas sector also recorded an increase at 16% y-o-y.

Monster.com CEO for the Asia Pacific and Middle East Abhijeet Mukherjee stated that the boost in online hiring would likely continue to increase, though in a slow and steady manner, especially as some sectors showed steep declines.

Abhijeet added,“Malaysian economy continues to expand at a steady and promising pace, and the country’s main economic sectors are expected to record positive growth, with the service and manufacturing sectors projected to grow by 5.7% and 4.8% respectively. After the significant increase in the first quarter, the second quarter should continue to exhibit positive growth.”

When it comes to the nine job-roles monitored by the MEI, engineering/production, real estate recorded the steepest y-o-y decline of 6% for the month under review while the demand for software, hardware, telecom professionals recorded the highest uptrend of 41% y-o-y in April 2019.