this is important..referring to all graduates!

Slight drop in Malaysia’s job outlook confidence
expected in Second Half 2008, says JobStreet.com
Kuala Lumpur, 23 July 2008 – There are signs that the job market in many of the industrial
sectors in Malaysia is expected to tighten in the second half of this year. A survey conducted
by JobStreet.com earlier this month indicates that the overall job outlook confidence is
expected to decrease slightly from the first six months.
The major sectors most likely to be affected to some degree by the economic uncertainties
would be manufacturing, construction, finance, trade, hospitality and transportation, while the
computer and mining (oil and gas) industries are likely to be unaffected.
From a random selection of about
600 JobStreet.com clients from
various industries that were polled
in July 2008, 36 percent of them
said that they would employ more
people in the second half of this
year as compared to the same
period last year. About 34 per cent
said that the level of employing
new staff would remain more or
less the same, while 30 percent said
they would be hiring less people.
In contrast, a similar poll by
JobStreet.com at the beginning of
the year indicated that 55 percent of
companies were expecting to hire
more staff in the first half of the
year as compared to the first six
months of 2007.
The decline in the hiring rate of
new staff was also reflected in the
job outlook for the second half of
this year. About 42 percent of the
companies polled were of the
opinion that the employment
prospects for this period would be
worse than that of the same period
in 2007.
Only 30 percent of the respondents expressed confidence that the next six months of the year
would at least be slightly better that the second half of last year, while about 28 percent said
the job outlook would be unchanged.
Measured against the first half of
this year, about 43 percent of the
respondents said that the job
outlook would be worse.
However, 32 percent said the job
outlook would be unchanged for
the second half and about 25
percent thought that the job outlook
would still be positive enough for
companies.
JobStreet.com also polled the
companies on whether or not they
would adjust staff salaries in view
of increasing fuel prices.
While 52 percent of the companies
either said there would be no
adjustment in the mean time or it
was still too early for their
management to make any decision,
the other 48 percent indicated that
there would be an adjustment of at
least 5 percent to salaries.
The JobStreet.com Job Outlook
Survey for the Second half 2008
also polled employers about the job
skills and specializations they require in the new staff they would hire during this period.
Collectively for all industries, the top job specialization wanted was marketing and business
development. Specialization in sales and marketing climbed up two positions to displace
mechanical engineering which dropped to third position.
Other highly sought skills that companies are looking for include accounting, computer and IT
software, clerical and general administration, customer service, electrical engineering, human
resource and specialization in technical sales and marketing. (Refer to the table on Page 3)
Some comments by survey participants
Higher operational costs arising from the recent increase in fuel prices in Malaysia are main
concerns expressed by companies that participated in the JobStreet.com Job Outlook Survey for
the second half of 2008.
According to some of the responses received, employers are starting to look at leaner company
structures with more qualified candidates filling the job openings. Employers are exercising
more caution in hiring additional
manpower but at the same time,
they are becoming more efficient
with their existing headcount. “It’s
now the employer’s market,”
intoned one of the respondents.
Another respondent observed that
while the job market would be
affected by the economic
uncertainties, jobs were still there
to be filled. However, the more
pressing concern that employers
still face was the difficulty in
finding the right person for the job.
Despite the tightening job market,
many job seekers continue to be
very choosy in their wants and
were willing to be jobless until
they got what they wanted. “Our
job market has not reached the
desperation stage where job
seekers will turn to any job offered
to them and perform,” he said.
However, it should be noted that not all the industries share the same opinion of a tightening job
market. A respondent from the computer industry claimed that jobs in the IT industry was still
relatively plenty and could even continue to grow during this period.
Appendix 1: Job Outlook (major industries)
Appendix 2: Top 10 job specializations (major industries)
About JobStreet
JobStreet operates the JobStreet.com (www.jobstreet.com) online recruitment websites
presently covering the employment markets in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines,
Indonesia, India and Bangladesh. The Group has also established a subsidiary in Japan and
invested in Recruit Group Limited in Hong Kong. The Group currently services over
50,000 corporate customers and over 5.0 million jobseekers throughout the region.
JobStreet is listed on the Main Board of the Bursa Malaysia Securities (Stock Code:
JOBST)
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