Demands for advertising and marketing professionals in Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines continue to face a downward spiral, where none of the markets saw positive annual growth, according to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI) report for these regions.

The advertising, market research, public relations, media and entertainment sectors in Singapore reported the least decline in demand between January 2015 and 2016, at -1% year-over-year – an improvement of 4 percentage point from -5% annual decline recorded in December 2015.

In Malaysia, the sector continues to experience a sharp drop in annual demand at -20% year-over-year, a further decline from -19% registered between December 2014 and 2015.

The Philippines saw a -36% decline in demand in the sector between January 2015 and 2016, the sharpest drop amongst the three markets.

When looking at marketing and communications jobs, Malaysia registered the least decline out of the three markets at -1% year-over-year. In Singapore, these jobs have declined -10% year-on-year, while the Philippines has fallen by -38%.

Marketing & Communications jobs:

Advertising, Market Research, Public Relations, Media and Entertainment Sector:

“Competition for jobs in the marketing space remains tight, as job seekers compete for limited roles available while recruiters are cautious about hiring. When recruiting, employers want only the best possible talent in the pool, and would rather spend additional time making a sound hire over a hasty one that adds little benefit to the business,” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director of Monster.com (India, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong).

The Monster Employment Index is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity, based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career websites and online job listings across Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. 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.

By MediaBUZZ