TECH companies in Malaysia were the most active recruiters from February last year to this year, said online career and recruitment site Monster.com in its latest report on the country’s employment index.

Overall, Malaysia’s online hiring activity recorded an 11% year-on-year growth until February this year.

Leading this growth is the information technology, telecom/internet service provider, and business process outsourcing/IT-enabled services industry at 52% year-on-year, it said in its annual report.

Monster.com’s chief executive officer for the Asia Pacific and Middle-Eastern regions, Abhijeet Mukherjee, said the launch of the Digital Free Trade Zone and introduction of multiple digital initiatives in Malaysia’s national agenda had led significant progress in the country’s digital transformation.

“We are seeing a surge in the battle for talent in tech, e-commerce and professional services, signalling strong demand for niche skills to match and adapt to changing local and global market needs,” he said in the report.

“Students and employees alike should always stay ahead of industry trends to grasp and anticipate changing market needs, and in turn consistently upgrade their skills and find new opportunities.”

Other top growth sectors between February last year and the corresponding month this year were logistics, courier/freight/transportation, shipping/marine (45%); oil and gas (41%), and hospitality (23%).

Meanwhile, industries which showed a decline in online recruitment activities were the banking, financial services, and insurance sector that recorded a decline of 4%; retail (-2%); and advertising, market research, public relations, media and entertainment (-2%).

The production/manufacturing, automotive and ancillary sector also saw a slow growth of 3% from February last year to the corresponding month this year.

For occupations that saw the highest growth during the same period, those in software, hardware and telecommunication recorded a growth of 74%, followed by hospitality and travel (26%), sales and business development (21%), and purchase/logistics/supply chain (20%).

Jobs that recorded the lowest growth were in customer service (4%), administration (2%), finance and accounts (1%), and marketing and communications (0%).

The index covered online job posting activity, based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities, collected from a large representative selection of career websites and online job listings across Malaysia.

The index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry. – June 19, 2018.