KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — JobStreet has found that several industries, including information technology, manufacturing, banking, retail and healthcare continue to show growth and are still hiring during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to its country manager Gan Bock Herm.

He expects the growth will remain for some time as companies are looking at how they are operating in terms of the new normal.

Gan said the soft job market would be a challenge to new graduates this year but is optimistic the job market would pick up over the next six to 12 months.

"Our advice to graduates is obviously to leverage on resources in terms of how to apply for jobs and how to interview because based on our survey we are seeing a lot of companies are not just looking at hard technical skills but really focusing a lot on soft skills.

"I think graduates should take the opportunity during this time to make sure that they beef up in terms of their soft skills, their communication skills so that they can differentiate themselves as they apply for jobs and that companies can really look to employ them,” he said at the virtual press conference announcing the launch of #WorkNow initiative today.

The #WorkNow initiative, which is part of #TogetherAhead is a unique JobStreet initiative that began in the early days of the pandemic.

Gan said JobStreet is here to help those industries through #WorkNow initiative, to match the people who are looking for jobs in these industries with those who are looking to hire.

"...so that we close the gap as soon as possible and help reduce the retrenchment rate,” he said.

In a survey conducted by JobStreet last month among 5,000 members of the workforce in Malaysia, found that one in five who were working prior to the movement control order (MCO) have been retrenched.

Most of the retrenched employees are less tenured, low-income segment and from the part-time workforce in small organisations.

These workers are also largely from the tourism/travel, hospitality/catering, mass transportation, education and retail industries.

SEEK Asia chief executive officer Suresh Thiru said a small segment of industries would likely be unable to retain the same level of employment due to the nature of their business has changed,

The flexibility of labour movement from one segment to another he said, is important and need to be supported by the right amount of training and reskilling.

"Also on how much we want to depend on foreign labour also comes into play. We might not have so much of a demand moving forward even with some of the changes we are seeing today,” he said.

JobStreet.com and jobsDB are part of SEEK Asia, which is the leading online employment market place in Asia. — Bernama