DIGITAL JOB MARKET OUTLOOK 2022: RISING DEMAND FOR DIGITAL TALENTS

PIKOM’s job market report highlights promising future for digital talents.

The 14th annual Digital Job Market 2022 report by PIKOM was released in August 2022 providing an analysis and insights into the economy, industry and digital job market, as well as data on the local and global salary landscape. The report was published in collaboration with JobStreet, the Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). Dr Sean Seah, Chairman of PIKOM was on hand to unveil the report as it made its debut into the market.

According to the report, digital professionals in Malaysia can expect to earn higher salaries now since the economy has reopened fully and digital adoption has increased markedly in response to pandemic restrictions over the previous two years. Additionally the demand for digital talents is spiking with employment agency JobStreet by SEEK recording almost the same number of job postings in the rst half of 2022 (99,583) against the whole of 2021 (106,275).

In relation to salaries for digital professionals, the report highlighted that the scale was trending upwards after having remained almost stagnant during the pandemic period. On an average, monthly salaries are expected to rise by 4.5% next year from a historically-low growth rate of 2.2% in 2020.

Dr Seah said, “This publication has been an essential platform and beacon for industry players, policy makers and digital talents to navigate opportunities and challenges in the talent salary market.”

He added that this year’s edition spanned a broader scope by incorporating the salary ranges of digital professionals in economies from every continent, which include some of the most attractive markets for digital employment.

Expanding on insights featured in the report, Woon Tai Hai, PIKOM Research Committee Chair, attributed the growing demand and rising salaries for digital talents to the pivot by society, business, industry and government towards digital technologies during the height of COVID-19.

“The shift towards digital tools and platforms led to a boom in eCommerce, the gig economy, remote working and online interaction. In turn, this has created new opportunities in ntech, software, cybersecurity, arti cial intelligence (AI) and data science, among others,” Woon highlighted.

A key observation made was that jobs in cybersecurity were o ering relatively high returns in comparison with other digital clusters; while remuneration for positions in AI and data science was comparatively low, likely due to a lack of expertise and experience among Malaysian talents.

Woon also expressed a rising concern in the digital space, which is the continuing brain drain of local talents seeking more attractive job opportunities or prospects overseas. This is echoed in the report which highlights that Malaysia has fallen behind Thailand in terms of salaries

Highlights of the Digital Job Market 2022 Report

The report points out major challenges in global future employment which include:

• Job recovery - slow job rebound could increase risk of long-term unemployment.

• Widening divide – social and economic divide impacted by the pandemic could continue into the recovery.

• Rebuilding labour marketopportunity to reshape labour policies, skills and close gaps such as gender inequality.

• Future of pandemic –continuing uncertainty has resulted in the downgrading of 2022 and 2023 forecasts.

• Growing youth unemployment is a pressing issue among developing economies looking to grow tech industry.

• Digital employment has the potential to lead the way to faster growth since the pandemic has created new norms in life and work.

Key ndings:

• The digital economy is growing at a faster rate and is projected to exceed the 25% share of the national economy next year.

• Salaries of digital professionals in Malaysia are rebounding after stagnating or appreciating only marginally in the pandemic years.

• Software was the top paying industry cluster in 2021, with the previous year’s number one falling out of the top 5.

• Salaries in cybersecurity are more lucrative than other digital segments while those in AI and data science are comparatively low due to lack of experience among Malaysians.

• Malaysia continues to lag behind other economies in terms of salaries for digital professionals

• The disparity in salaries for di erent job position levels is considerably wider among emerging economies than developed nations.

Malaysia Economy Growth Forecast 2022

for digital professionals apart from economies in the Middle East as well as other developed nations in Asia and the West.

The report o ers exceptional insights into the digital job landscape including o ering benchmarks of salaries of 61 digital jobs from 21 economies around the world.

“With the focus expanded to other economies, this report is not only timely, but will also come in useful to delegates of the World Congress on Innovation and Technology (WCIT) 2022 organised by PIKOM and to be held in Penang on 13-15 September,” expressed Dr Seah.

PIKOM’s Projections

* As of 9 August 2022