PIKOM’s most-sought after research publication this year is renamed “Economic and Digital Job Market Outlook” focusing towards an analysis of the economy, a critical review the digital economy, the annual local salary trends for 2021 & 2022, and a regional salary outlook.
Chairman Danny Lee stated, “This year’s publication is all the more poignant and has multiple insights for readers, not only on the local digital job salary trends but are also benchmarked against eleven economies.”
“The important report provides valuable information for our members and industry at large. Such information offers a critical guide to challenges and opportunities for digital industry players, planners and policy makers in government as we transform to the next stage of the new normal.”
The report, presented by Research Chair Woon Tai Hai, revealed that there are aspects of the market that have grown leaps and bounds e.g. eCommerce, online connectivity infrastructure, digital adoptions, digital payment platforms, and certainly in digitalisation of certain services oriented sector.
“The term “transformation” for some is perhaps obsolete and instead “acceleration” is more appropriate. Whilst the digital economic contribution to the national economy may have reached the 20% target, set from many years ago, we are of the opinion that this digital journey may be further accelerated and will potentially ‘reshape’ the landscape of the digital industry. Also, MyDigital Blueprint and 5G deployment initiatives will be another set of impetus in driving the industry further,” says Woon.
PIKOM has forecasted a GDP growth for 2021 and 2022, albeit a lower growth of 2% to 2.5% for 2021 and a 4.5% to 5% for 2022. PIKOM also reported its outlook on fiscal debt, currency, inflation, interest rates, unemployment rate and commodity prices including the impact to the overall economy.
In terms of salaries, based on the data from Jobstreet and analysis and estimates by PIKOM, there is a clear downward growth trend as early as 2019 to 2020 for the local salary outlook. Salary growth in 2020 was on average 2.2% and the forecast for 2021 is only 0.1% and for 2022 at 2.0% as a direct impact of the pandemic including MCO periods, economic uncertainties and job losses.
In spite of that, the number of jobs advertised remained high, with the number of jobs advertised reaching 135,451 in 2020 and 97,909 in 2021 (up to June), according to Jobstreet, PIKOM’s strategic partner in the publication.
On the regional and global front comparing Malaysian technology salaries with our peers, Malaysia continues to slide with Thailand with a multiple of 1.21 times, Singapore of 1.98 times and USA of 2.10 times. These figures have been adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP).
Apart from MDEC and Jobstreet, other partners of the report included AngkasaX, Glocomp, Fusionex, Firmus, Dell, TrendMicro, VSTECS, BDO, Powerware Systems, LGMS, Hitachi Sunway and EKTECH.
For further information, go to www.pikom.org.my/EconomicDigitalOutlook2021.
