THE DEMAND for part-time and specialized roles in the Philippines continued to grow in the first quarter of 2026, driven by a surge in remote and hybrid work arrangements, according to online job portal Jobstreet by SEEK.
The employment platform said in a statement on Thursday that call center and customer service roles led the market, accounting for 13.9% of all available job postings on the platform. Other high-demand professions included accounting roles at 12.5% and information and communication technology at 12.4%.
According to the report, the top 10 in-demand roles also included administration and office support (11.8%), manufacturing, transport and logistics (10.7%), and sales (10.3%).
Engineering roles accounted for 6.5% of postings, followed by retail and consumer products (6.3%), marketing and communications (5.6%), and human resources and recruitment (5.3%).
Jobstreet said demand for part-time roles grew 35% year on year, with more than 4,000 new postings recorded this year, a spike it attributed to rising global demand for talent and the normalization of remote work.
It added that the evolving job landscape is prioritizing both cost efficiency and work-life balance.
The career portal also said artificial intelligence (AI) integration is now a primary driver of the labor market and forecast a surge in specialized “human-in-the-loop” roles, particularly for tech and communications experts, as companies embed AI into their operations.
“The future of work in the Philippines is anchored on trust, augmentation, and continuous upskilling. While AI is fundamentally changing how we work, it’s not a direct replacement for talent. Rather, it is creating emerging roles that require a human overseer for these automated processes, so employees can focus more on high-thinking critical decision making,” Dannah Majarocon, managing director of Jobstreet by SEEK in the Philippines, said in the statement.
The platform added that it partnered with the Department of Labor and Employment for its Labor Day job fairs on May 1, which it expects to bring more than 115,000 job opportunities to 88 sites nationwide. — Erika Mae P. Sinaking
