Who’s hiring? A look at the local job market amid the pandemic

By Patricia B. Mirasol

BusinessWorld asked job and career platforms for insights on where the labor market is right now, where it could be headed post-pandemic, and which sectors are hiring.

IN-DEMAND JOBS
JobStreet cites education, customer service, and healthcare as the top three in-demand job industries right now. Here are the top 10 per their March to June 2020 database:

• Education
• Customer Service
• Healthcare (Nurse/ Medical Support & Assistant)
• IT/Computer – Software
• Clerical/Administrative Support
• General Work
• Finance – General/Cost Accounting
• Food/Beverage/Restaurant Service
• IT/Computer – Network/System/Database Admin
• Banking/Financial Services

“During the COVID-19 crisis, Education overtook Customer Service in the top spot (Customer Service was previously number one in the first two months of the quarantine), due to a rise in demand for online teaching jobs. Some of the industries that are fast-climbing because of the current quarantine needs are: IT/Computer – Software, General Work (i.e., housekeeping, driving, messenger services, etc.), and Finance (i.e., accounting),” said a representative for JobStreet.

The portal also saw an 88% increase in search for work-from-home jobs, a 79% increase in search for home-based jobs, and a 94% increase in search for freelance jobs from March to April 2020, or the first two months of the quarantine. “With the majority of the workforce moving remotely, the focus is on digital skills,”  JobStreet’s representative added.

JobStreet noted that certain job roles, such as Zoom support, reflect the new normal.

Meanwhile, Sebastian San, general manager of the non-executive job platform Fast Jobs PH, shared that more jobs related to e-commerce have sprung up during the pandemic. They saw a shift in demand from retailers and F&B (food and beverage) positions to warehouse packers and delivery riders. They similarly saw a surge in administrative, call center, retail, and logistics roles.

MOST APPLIED-FOR JOBS
From the same March to June 2020 database, JobStreet also enumerated the top 10 jobs with the most number of applicants:

• Customer Service
• Clerical/Administrative Support
• Banking/Financial Services
• Education
• Human Resources
• Finance – General/Cost Accounting
• IT/Computer – Software
• Sales – Retail/General
• Sales – Corporate
• Marketing/Business Development

Kalibrr’s white paper, “The Philippine Talent Landscape: COVID-19’s Impact on the Labor Market in Q2 2020,” broke down these segments as follows:

ACTIVELY HIRING INDUSTRIES
JobStreet sees the job market as generally more employer-centric. From April to June, two million visitors accessed the website, which lists almost 42,000 job opportunities.

Kalibrr noted that jobseekers should look at positions that received minimal applications, since this presents an opportunity for them to learn skills that can help them qualify for these roles. 

It also pointed out that while the IT and BPO industry offered a lot of potential job opportunities, there were fewer than 35 applications per job post. According to Kalibrr, employers in the said industries should better communicate their brands to gain more applications. This guides jobseekers too on promising career opportunities due to less competition and more stability. 

These are the bright spots in the labor market that job hunters and organizations can capitalize on, amid an unemployment rate of 17.7% — equivalent to 7.25 million jobless Filipinos and the fastest since 2005 — from 5.1% a year earlier, according to the local statistics agency.