Press Releases

JobStreet.com releases its Job Outlook Report for the Third Quarter 2009 amidst signs of the national economy emerging from the global downturn.

So how do we see the overall job outlook in the country? Three months ago, we said that the job outlook confidence for the second quarter of this year would still be treading cautiously. Today, there is growing expectation that the job market will improve in the third quarter and companies will step up their search for new human capital.

The Job Outlook Index, as measured by JobStreet.com, looks at the expectations of job growth (or employment prospects) in the industries on a quarterly basis. A higher index means that the industries are creating jobs and employment, while a lower index means the reverse with lesser jobs on offer.

For the Third Quarter of 2009, the Job Outlook Index registered 46 points, which was a jump from the 27 points in the preceding quarter. (As a comparison, the Job Outlook Index at this time last year also stood at 46 points.)

How 3Q 2009 is expected to compare with 3Q 2008: The survey showed that 34 percent of the respondents indicated that the job outlook for 3Q 2009 would be comparatively better than the same period last year, another 29 percent felt that the job outlook would be about the same while the remaining 40 percent thought the job outlook could be slightly worse or much worse.

Anticipated hiring activities: In terms of hiring, we expect to see an increase in this activity and while companies are still relatively guarded about filling positions, they have begun stepping up the search for new staff. The percentage of respondents who said that their companies would be hiring more people had increased to 12 percent from the 10 percent in the last quarter. The percentage of those who now claimed that their hiring rates would be maintained this year went from 11 percent to 17 percent. Respondents who said their companies wouldn’t still be hiring in the foreseeable future dropped to only 16 percent from the last quarter’s 32 percent. The remaining 54 percent of respondents said that their companies would continue to look at replacing or filling essential positions.

In particular, the survey indicated that the Manufacturing industry, among the hardest hit sectors of the economy at the beginning of the year, is showing renewed confidence. The percentage of respondents from this sector who said that they wouldn’t be hiring has dropped from 40 percent in the last quarter to 15 percent. A third of the respondents said that their companies would expand or maintain their hiring rate. For the anticipated hiring activities in the country’s major industries, please refer to Appendix 2.

Reaching the bottom: About 20 percent of the respondents felt that the overall economy has already touched bottom while a third said that the economy was about to do so. However, almost half of the respondents were not so optimistic and said that though recovery could be seen, there was still some way to go before the worst would be over.

Top specializations sought: The survey also asked respondents on the job skills and specializations they would require in the new staff should they be hiring during this period.

Collectively for all industries, people with skills in marketing, sales and business development would continue to be the most keenly required, followed by people with expertise in computer and information technology.

Also in high regard are the people with accounting background as well as those who are in the customer service lines. Mechanical, electrical and electronics engineers continue to be well sought after.For the top specializations sought among the country’s major industries, refer to Appendix 3.

Note: About 800 JobStreet.com clients, managers and senior managers across various industries in Malaysia participated in this survey in June 2009.

Some comments by survey participants
“We are in the assembly and testing of semiconductor devices. We hit bottom in March and we are seeing orders returning to pre-Oct 2008 level for the Third Quarter of this year, that is, just before the crash in Nov. The over-depletion of components inventory for the China and Far East markets seems to be the main cause of this upsurge. Its sustainability will depend on downstream demands in large markets like the United States and the EU.” (Industry: Manufacturing)

“Due to the uncertainty of business in the manufacturing sector, some companies are looking at hiring contract staff and outsourcing some of the work.” (Industry: Manufacturing)

“Due to the drastic drop in Nov08 to Feb09 period, the market is picking up quickly now. However, it is still very uncertain whether this would be sustained as there is again signs of cancellation or reduction of previously forecast orders, although not drastic.” (Industry: Manufacturing)

“Effects of the larger developed countries have yet to hit us. Our recovery will lag behind them. We will be roughly six months to a year behind. We face shortage of talent and hardworking work force. We are also getting uncompetitive and Malaysia as a manufacturing base is gone already. We expect a gradual phase out from the electronic sectors industry in the coming years from our talks with captains of these sectors during functions overseas.” (Industry: Manufacturing)

“Manufacturing companies are moving out of Malaysia. Lack of new investors or replacements for those moved out. Need to revamp economic policy to retain investors and attract new ones. Outdated policies need to be changed and improved.” (Industry: Manufacturing)

“Pharma industry will be less affected by the downturn but patients will increasingly head to government hospitals/clinics rather than private clinics/hospitals for cheaper options.” (Industry: Manufacturing)

“Last year and this year were supposed to be lean times but workload and profits suggested otherwise. Management's caution a year or two ago meant recruitment freeze, but continued good business meant everybody was overloaded.” (Industry: Computers and I.T.)

“More companies are tightening budget in other areas but now willing to spend on education in areas of Information Security. Companies are now moving forward with ISMS - Information Security Management System or ISO27001. I believe, there are more demands in these areas for next 12 months especially companies that want to compete in the IT Industry and stay relevant.” (Industry: Computers and I.T.)

“The IT industry looks more resilient then others but is stagnating.” (Industry: Computers and I.T.)

“Economy will still go down and expecting to hit bottom by the end of 2009 with no growth or no significant growth for year 2010 and slow growth for year 2011. Third quarter 2009 will have better outlook for employment though, since the bottoming of recession is predicted and recruitment starts for those companies that had frozen employment for past one year.” (Industry: Construction)

“Contrary to what the economists and bankers say in open/public forums, the economic outlook will worsen very much more in the foreseeable six to 18 months. Already, most large corporates are limiting their hiring to only the very essential roles. Going forward, hiring will be severely affected.” (Industry: Finance)

“Islamic banking and finance are still not that badly affected by the slowdown in the economy. Thus we can still grow, albeit with a reduced growth rate.” (Industry: Finance)

“Although we are doing well in Malaysia, our multinational sister companies are hurting, especially in North America and Europe. As a result of a blanket worldwide cut back policy implementation, the productive Asian units (like ours) are punished (paying) for the sins (excesses) of our white bretheren (sister offices in countries that are not doing well).” (Industry: Business Services)

“Job outlook will still be pretty bad. There will be less or no hiring at all, meaning more workload for the present employees. Multi-tasking is a key word these days. Hiring of lower-level staff would be stricter and mostly based on personality and presentation of self during the interview (and possibly from comments/feedback from referees or previous colleagues of the applicant) than solely on academic achievements only.” (Industry: Business Services)

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About JobStreet
JobStreet operates the JobStreet.com (www.jobstreet.com) online recruitment websites presently covering the employment markets in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Japan and Thailand. The Group also has investments in Hong Kong. The Group currently services over 50,000 corporate customers and over 6.0 million jobseekers throughout the region. JobStreet is listed on the Main Board of the Bursa Malaysia Securities (Stock Code: JOBST)