Online recruitment in Singapore grew by 3% in December 2020 when compared to December 2019, according to data from the Monster Employment Index.

On a month-on-month basis, the Index recorded a decline of 1%. Monster said the trend of the last few months shows that hiring is rising among companies.

Online hiring demand in December 2020 exceeded December 2019 level in 9 of the 14 industries monitored by the Index.

Production/ Manufacturing (19%) saw the most-notable year-on-year growth in e-recruitment among industries. This was followed by Healthcare (+16%), Engineering, Construction and Real Estate (+11%).

Advertising, Market Research, Public Relations, Media and Entertainment (-17%), Retail/Trade and Logistics (-11%), and BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) (-10%) showed the steepest decline in December 2020 from the year-ago level.

 At the same time, annual online demand for professionals increased for 10 of the 12 functional areas monitored by the Index

Software, Hardware, Telecom (+21%), professionals continued to witness steepest year-on-year growth. This was followed by increase in demand for Healthcare (+17%) and Engineering /Production (+15%) professionals.

Functional areas like Sales & Business Development (-7%), Finance & Accounts (-6%) and HR & Admin (-1%) were the only industries to record a decline.

 The Index is a broad and comprehensive monthly and quarterly analysis of online job posting activity conducted by Monster.