Overall salaries across the Philippines stabilised significantly this year compared to the year before, according to JobStreet’s Salary Guide.

JobStreet’s Guide compared data from the period April 2022 – March 2023 against the period from April 2021 – March 2022. It found that 97.6% of job ads in the period reported their salaries as stable in the year to March 2023 when compared to the year prior, while 1.2% of job ads saw an increase in salaries and 1.2% saw a decrease in salaries during the same period.

Among industries, the fluctuation of job ads with changed salaries remained within 2%, except for the entertainment industry which saw a pay cut of 5.49%. This can be attributed to consumers cutting down on non-essential spending, which has directly impacted the demand for entertainment-related services and resulted in adjustments to salaries within the industry. The decrease on non-essential spending may have led to reduced revenue and profitability for entertainment companies, prompting them to make salary adjustments accordingly, the Guide added. The lowest was seen in the education industry (-0.002%).

When looking at the percentage of job ads with salary changes by industry, the top pay rise was seen in the transportation industry (1.68%), followed by human resources (1.32%). The lowest pay rise was reported in construction and building (0.01%).

Among specialisations with increased salaries, healthcare reported the highest increase in median salary with a 3.8% rise year-on-year. The highest decrease in median salary was seen in accounting and finance (-26.7%).

Meanwhile, among industries, the highest increase in median salary was recorded in Materials (57.1%) while on the opposite end, the insurance industry saw the biggest decrease (-49.5%).

JobStreet’s data also showed that Filipinos consider the absence of financial compensation and work-life balance as top deal breakers when accepting a job.

Dannah Majarocon, managing director of JobStreet Philippines, told Business World employers must diversify their benefits packages and other forms of compensation to attract more skilled professionals and workers.

"While salary is still a huge contributor (in motivating talent) to apply for or stay in a company, they are also enticed by other benefits that allow them to balance their job and life," Majarocon said.