Report: Job Glut In Manufacturing, Retail, Finance Sectors
HR trade journal says even doctors and lawyers are in oversupply in Malaysia, while human resources job skills are high in demand.
PETALING JAYA: The job sector is challenging for the thousands of fresh graduates looking to start putting what they have learnt to good use, and according to a human resources trade journal, its tougher for some industries with an oversupply of candidates.
Human Resources Online (HRO), which serves the HR management community in Malaysia and Singapore reports the manufacturing, wholesale and retail, as well as finance and insurance sectors may have an oversupply.
“Thanks to disruptive technology and the challenging economy, these industries (which were last year’s top retrenched fields) continue to have too many workers.
“There are also too many general practitioners (doctors), especially in urban areas. Additionally, lawyers, who had been on a critical occupations list until last year, have been removed from the list, a hint that they are no longer considered to be ‘critically needed’,” HRO said in its report yesterday.
On that note, the human resources ministry has also advised graduates entering the job market to study employment trends.
“Those thinking of manufacturing, wholesale and retail, and finance and insurance, should know that these sectors topped the retrenchment list last year,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.
According to official statistics, in 2015, there were no retrenchments in the professional, scientific, technical, administrative, support services, education, health, humanities, social work, water supply, waste management, art, entertainment, recreation, and household products and services sectors.
However, the ministry notes the positive trend changed last year.
Meanwhile, the Critical Occupations List for 2016/2017 (COL), which covers 10 key sectors in Malaysia, also highlights human resources managers and other jobs falling under the scope of human resource services – such as training, occupational services and industrial relations – as part of the professions that are “critical”.
The COL also lists managing directors and chief executives, finance managers,
policy and planning managers, business services managers, sales and marketing managers, advertising and public relations managers, research and development managers, manufacturing managers, and information and communications (ICT) managers.
The COL is released by the Critical Skills Monitoring Committee (CSC), which was established in 2015 and is jointly led by TalentCorp and the Institute of Labour Market Information and Analysis and the human resources ministry.
On Sunday, Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Shamsuddin Bardan was quoted by The Star as saying that social media experts were also now much sought-after as businesses strengthened their social media platforms to become more sales-driven.
“Multi-faceted social media professionals who can create, edit and write content, drive engagement and awareness, and manage advertising campaigns to drive sales, are wanted,” he told the daily.
With the growing threat from cyberattacks and hackers, another job that is increasing in demand is cybersecurity experts.
According to Shamsuddin, many employers have started to value soft skills more than work experience.
“A candidate may have extensive experience and stellar qualifications but they’re of little value if their soft skills are lacking.
“Employers will look at what motivates the candidate and how they can effectively and efficiently communicate with the team if hired,” Shamsuddin was quoted as saying.
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