foundit (formerly Monster APAC & ME), one of the leading talent platforms, published the foundit Insights Tracker (fit) for June 2023, formerly published as Monster Employment Index (MEI). According to the Philippines fit report, job roles in the healthcare and retail sector have impressively grown by 26% and 12% respectively over the past year.
The tracker also reveals a marginal dip of 2% in e-recruitment activity, as the index climbed down from 127 in June 2022 to 124 in June 2023. Despite this drop-in recruitment activity, sectors such as healthcare, retail, and BPO/ITES witnessed progressive annual hiring growth in June 23.
Amidst the ongoing pursuit of cost-cutting measures by global businesses, call centres and outsourcing companies in the Philippines have exceeded revenue and hiring targets and managed to maintain a positive outlook for the BPO job market.
These promising numbers confirm a gradual but continuous improvement in the labour market, implying that demand for online recruitment will continue to climb in the coming months.
Commenting on the Philippines’ job trends for June 2023, Sekhar Garisa, CEO, foundit, said, “Hiring is picking up pace in the Philippines. We are hopeful that jobs will rebound in the upcoming months as certain sectors such as healthcare, retail, and BPO/ITES are showing a positive growth trajectory. The Philippines government has also shown support for gig & hybrid jobs, boosting hiring for service. This is crucial for job seekers, giving them more flexibility and opportunities to work in different sectors and locations.”
Healthcare, retail, and BPO/ITES sectors lead in hiring activity, while the IT, telecom, logistics, courier/freight, and advertising industries witness a drop in recruitment.
The fit reveals that the healthcare industry continued to dominate the job market in June 2023, with a YoY increase of 26% in hiring in the sector. Despite the shortage of skilled nurses and doctors, there has been a promising upward trend in hiring efforts to meet the country’s healthcare demands.
Also, the retail industry (+12%) witnessed double-digit growth in hiring demand this month owing to the increased number of customers visiting physical stores. Given that the Filipino government had allowed BPO companies with work-from-home arrangements to retain tax incentives, the hiring in the BPO/ITES sector (+11%) saw sequential annual growth in June 23.
The logistics, courier/freight/transportation, and shipping industry along with IT and telecom/ISP has recorded a dramatic decline in hiring activity, with a YoY decrease of 34% and 20% respectively.
Logistics has always presented a major challenge in the Philippines due to inadequate infrastructure, frequent weather-related disasters, and scattered demand. Consequently, the industry has struggled to thrive, resulting in sluggish hiring trends within the sector.
The growth momentum for other industries such as advertising, MR, PR, media & entertainment (-18%), engineering, construction and real estate (-1%), hospitality (-3%), BFSI (-13%), production/manufacturing, automotive and ancillary (-14%), and education (-17%) saw a consecutive dip annually in June’ 23.
Roles in healthcare, sales & business development, and customer service lead the hiring trends
There continues to be a high demand for healthcare (+21%) professionals marking the steepest annual growth in June 23.
With the sudden jump in the retail sector, the jobs in sales & business development (+17%) went up leading to an increase in demand for candidates in customer service and software, hardware, and telecom functions are also experiencing a positive and steady growth of 11% and 3%, respectively, due to the improving economy.
Jobs in purchase/ logistics/ supply chain (-24%) have been facing some challenges since Jan 23 and showed the lowest growth in hiring this month among all monitored functions.
Hiring for marketing & communications (-21%) and HR & admin (-21%) roles too dipped substantially in June 23. Other industries to witness a subsequent drop in hiring activity include hospitality & travel (-1%) engineering/ production, real estate (-2%), and finance and accounts (-10%).
The foundit Insights Tracker is a comprehensive monthly analysis of online job posting activity conducted by foundit.
Based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large, representative selection of online career outlets, the foundit Insights Tracker (fit) presents a snapshot of employer online recruitment activity nationwide.
