A survey conducted by employment portal Jobstreet shows that 50 percent of new positions posted online offered an increased pay by an average of 22.9 percent across 22 industries in the Philippines last year.
In its 2021 Salary Report, Jobstreet the country is inching its way to recovery. The report compared salary data from JobStreet’s pool of employers between three first three quarters of 2021 and the same period in 2020. It was conducted in six countries in Asia, including the Philippines.
“The report aimed to provide candidates with information and insights to manage their salary expectations and to help improve their career planning while also assisting employers in making strategic hiring offers and decisions,” said JobStreet Philippines country manager Philip Gioca.
Based on the report, education, public service, social services, electrical/electronics and computer/IT were among the top industries that offer higher salaries, followed by marketing/advertising, telecommunications, healthcare, construction and building and communication services .
Public sectors were in need of quality employees, with job offers on the rise. With the new ways of working, computer/IT and telecommunications industries were also thriving and were offering higher compensation for their candidates. This trend was also seen in digital marketing and advertising.
In terms of job specialization, jobseekers specializing in education/training, computer/IT, administration and human resources, healthcare and manufacturing offered higher salaries due to the need for quality candidates who are digitally savvy, skilled at running company operations, and are experts in medical fields amid the pandemic.
Mobility restrictions in the country had adverse effects on several industries’ salary offers. For instance, oil and gas, hospitality, consumer goods, and retail industries experienced pay cuts. Likewise, the banking and real estate industries offered lower salaries, potentially caused by the overall economic condition of the country.
While the call center/IT-enabled services/BPO industry brings in the most jobs in the market with higher offers, some companies could not avoid the impact of the pandemic with 41 percent of their job ads posted with lower rates than in 2020.
Applicants specializing in accounting/finance, sales/marketing and engineering took a hit in their paychecks because many businesses were in survival mode. Specializations requiring face-to-face interaction also saw a decline in salary offers such as hotel/restaurant, construction, services and manufacturing.
“The pandemic has had a huge impact in the labor market in the past couple of years. This also made the competition for quality talents steep among hirers, causing employers to make adjustments to their offerings, policies, and work environment,” Gioca said.
The report noted the impact of COVID-19 cases on jobs offers in the National Capital Region and areas outside Metro Manila.
According to the report, 20 of 43 industries in NCR experienced major pay cuts in position level with median salary in the first three quarters of 2021. Despite this, 16 industries in the region including public service; science and technology; legal; beauty, health, and fitness; human resources among others had pay increases in the same period.
“The rising COVID-19 cases in NCR are relatively higher than in the rest of the country, which resulted in stricter protocols, causing companies to make adjustments in their offers. On the other hand, other industries in the region were able to thrive and have posed significant increases in their salary offer,” Gioca said.
Meanwhile, growth in salary was also seen in provinces with rising economic activity and those in proximity to NCR. Among these areas are Angeles City, Iloilo City, Calamba City, Bulacan and Cavite. Salary increases were also observed in Palawan, General Santos City, Batangas, Cebu City and Baguio City.
With the recent salary movements, JobStreet advised jobseekers to not feel discouraged while scouting for jobs and look into other benefits, health, and work conditions, aside from salary.
“Salary is just one factor when it comes to career planning. We recommend candidates to ask their potential employers about other items like benefits and company culture. It also pays to explore new skills relevant in specializations and/or industries with stable or rising pay,” said JobStreet senior sales manager Ryan Tordesillas.
The job portal also underscored the opportunity for employers to leverage this foresight to plan for and acquire talent before competition increases as the job market fully recovers.
As salaries become more competitive, companies are advised to understand all the forces that influence jobseekers’ motivation beyond salaries in order to get the talent edge over competitors.
JobStreet recorded more than 105 million job searches in 2021 and over 75,000 job vacancies offered through the platform dailyat any given time. In addition, the top specializations hired through the platform in 2021 were call center/IT-enabled services/BPO, education, IT/computer—software, finance, and administrative support.