PETALING JAYA: The National ICT Association of Malaysia or Pikom has released its research publication this year, and renamed it to "Economic and Digital Job Market Outlook" to better reflect the intentions and contents of the report, which is focused towards economic analysis, digital economy, salary trends, and regional salary outlook.
At the launch, Pikom's chairman, Danny Lee said the publication is more poignant and has multiple insights for readers, "...not only on the local digital job salary trends but are also benchmarked against eleven economies".
HIGHLIGHTS
Among highlights of the analysis which were shared during the one hour briefing is that there are aspects of the market that have grown by leaps and bounds such as the e-commerce industry, online connectivity infrastructure, increased digital adoption, digital payment platforms, and an overall increase in digitalisation of certain services-oriented sectors.
The country's digital journey may be further accelerated and has potential to reshape the landscape of the digital industry especially with the national initiative set forth by the government to transform Malaysia into a digitally-driven, high income nation and a regional leader in digital economy, and 5G deployment initiatives.
"Whilst the digital economic contribution to the national economy may have reached the 20 per cent target, set from many years ago, we are of the opinion that this digital journey may be further accelerated and will potentially 'reshape' the landscape of the digital industry. Also, MyDigital Blueprint and 5G deployment initiatives will be another set of impetus in driving the industry further," said the research chair, Woon Tai Hai, who presented the report.
Woon also highlighted the domestic digital salary outlook in his presentation. Based on the data retrieved from Southeast Asia's largest online employment company, Jobstreet, Woon said that there is a clear downward trend in growth even as early as 2019.
JOBS REMAINED HIGH
Despite this downward trajectory, JobStreet, which is also Pikom's strategic partner for the publication, shared that the number of jobs advertised remained high, with the number of jobs advertised reaching 135,451 in 2020 and 97,909 in 2021 (up to June).
Looking at the demand trend on the platform, JobStreet's managing director, Vic Sithasanan advised job seekers to continuously upskill and re-skill to stay relevant.
"JobStreet foresees that percentages for 'digital first' skills and expertise would increase even more due to rising demand for digital tools and processes. Hence, there is an urgent need for people to upskill themselves with knowledge of digital technologies coupled with digital literacy and transferable skills," he said.
The report also highlighted regional salaries from selected eleven economies and eight specific IT or digital job designations for this exercise, which are common and traditional covering software, hardware, network, project management and consultancy.
Based on data from JobStreet and analysis and estimates by Pikom, there is a clear downward growth trend as early as 2019 to 2020 for the local salary outlook. Salary growth in 2020 was on average 2.2 per cent and the forecast for 2021 is only 0.1 per cent and for 2022 at 2.0 per cent as a direct impact of the pandemic including movement control order periods, economic uncertainties and job losses.
PURCHASING POWER
However, the report also showed that in comparison to other economies, by using Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), a macroeconomic analysis metric, Malaysia is on the seventh rank while the US topped the list followed by Singapore.
It is also interesting to note that Thailand has surpassed Malaysia in its average salary for digital jobs.
"On the regional and global front comparing Malaysian technology salaries with our peers, Malaysia continues to slide with Thailand with a multiple of 1.21 times, Singapore of 1.98 times and US of 2.10 times," presented Woon.
Overall, the Economic and Digital Job Market Outlook report offers a general overview of the impact from the pandemic, the salary trends in the digital industry, the increasing demand in cybersecurity as it continues to outpace industry average as well as concerns for talent supply digital talents appeared to be most affected digital job in 2021 in terms of vacancies and salaries.
"The report provides valuable information for our members and industry at large. Such information offers a critical guide to challenges and opportunities for digital industry players, planners and policy makers in government as we transform to the next stage of the new normal," said Lee.
Apart from MDEC and JobStreet, the report also partnered with AngkasaX, Glocomp, Fusionex, Firmus, Dell, TrendMicro, VSTECS, BDO, Powerware Systems, LGMS, Hitachi Sunway and EKTECH.
The complete report is available for viewing at www.pikom.org.my/EconomicDigitalOutlook2021.