Hiring outlook here weakens for 2nd straight quarter: Poll

Decline driven by a sharp rise in employer pessimism in communication services

- Tay Hong Yi

Hiring sentiments in Singapore declined for a second consecutive quarter, driven by a sharp rise in employer pessimism in communication services, which include telecommunications and the media.

However, improved net employment outlooks in the finance and real estate sector, as well as the energy and utilities sector, helped cushion the drop, according to the latest results from recruitment firm ManpowerGroup's quarterly employment outlook survey released on March 12.

Net employment outlook is a measure of hiring optimism, defined as the percentage of companies surveyed that intend to take on new staff, minus the percentage that intend to downsize.

Employers in the communication services sector reported a net employment outlook of negative 29 per cent, which means more firms polled from the sector intend to downsize than expand their headcount.

It is the only one of the nine sectors surveyed with a negative outlook in the latest results. The figure is down 72 percentage points from the previous quarter and 88 percentage points from the same time in 2023.