- Asia’s workforce lacks people with the skills to fill technical positions in companies, Peter Bithos, CEO of job portal operator Seek Asia, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia.
- Despite layoffs at tech companies, almost “every sector in the economy outside of tech” is hiring tech workers, Bithos explained.
Tech jobs in Asia are “resilient” despite layoffs in the tech sector, Peter Bithos said.
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Asia may be grappling with labor shortages in the wake of the pandemic, but Peter Bithos, CEO of job portal operator Seek Asia, said it’s not the same as North America’s “great resignation”.
Instead, the Asian workforce lacks people with the skills to fill technical positions in companies, Bithos told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia.
“What we’ve seen is a major reconfiguration of the types of talent that are needed in the workforce,” he said. This is reflected in the increase in listings for technical roles on Seek’s platforms, which are up 66% year over year, according to Bithos.
Despite layoffs at tech companies, almost “every sector in the economy outside of tech” is hiring tech workers, Bithos explained. Tech jobs across Asia remain robust and “in high demand,” he added.
A search of the job portals JobsDB and JobStreet, operated by Seek Asia, revealed 57,902 available information technology jobs in six Asian economies: Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.
The number of applicants for these tech positions is up 14%, which Bithos says could be driven by layoffs in the tech sector, as well as people feeling “confident” enough to seek employment once the pandemic is over .
There are still many jobs available to laid-off workers, although those roles may not reside in a “pure technology company,” Bithos said.
Technological jobs account for nearly half of Singapore’s fastest-growing job titles over the past five years, according to LinkedIn in its Jobs on the Rise list for 2023. These include jobs such as cybersecurity engineer, backend developer, and artificial intelligence engineer.