WAGE HIKE SEEN FOR SEVERAL SECTORS NEXT YEAR
20-25pc increments expected for jobs in banking and financial services, engineering and IT, among others
WAGE earners can expect salary hikes of between 20 and 25 per cent next year when they change jobs in the banking and financial services, engineering, as well as legal and compliance sectors.
The information and technology (IT) sector is also expected to grow the fastest next year in a candidate-driven market, with salary increments ranging between 20 and 30 per cent.
Robert Walters, a specialist professional recruitment consultancy company, said Malaysia has experienced steady hiring activity this year due to the country’s ease of doing business, political stability, market growth and business-friendly government-driven initiatives.
Robert Walters Malaysia country manager Kimberlyn Lu said hiring activity would remain active next year, driven mostly by the continuous growth of ecommerce, digitalisation, fintech, shared services and better organisational optimisation. “We see high demand in IT jobs spanning across the fintech, banking and healthcare sectors, such as data analysts, software engineers and cybersecurity.
“Candidates with niche skills and better adaptability stand a better chance of being hired as trends are set to change based on companies’ specified skills required for them,” she said at a media briefing on the company’s Salary Survey 2018 report, here, yesterday.
The IT sector saw a spike in demand for software developers skilled in programming languages this year as organisations looked to fill hybrid positions with top candidates who were adept in more than one coding language.
“This trend is set to continue as we see more need, such as in the implementation of the Digital Free Trade Zone and more businesses moving towards digitalisation,” she added.
Candidates with high potential or niche skills are also expected to enjoy increments of between 25 and 30 per cent when they move jobs, although a raise of 15 to 20 per cent is common practice.