Teachers, health workers, HR execs ‘paid higher’ in ’21

(Photo courtesy of Alaminos Public Information Office)

MANILA, Philippines — Believe it or not, the constantly underpaid teachers and health-care workers, along with human resources (HR) managers, commanded higher salaries in 2021, while accountants, sales and some IT workers had to endure pay cuts.

Leading online job portal JobStreet showed the numbers in its 2021 Salary Report, which tracked an overall recovery in the Philippine job market after the disruptions seen in 2020, albeit hitting only some 75 percent of prepandemic conditions.

According to the report presented on Wednesday by JobStreet Philippines country manager Philip Gioca, 50 percent of job posts in the platform enticed jobseekers with salary increases last year, with 22 industries giving 40 percent of its posted jobs pay hikes averaging nearly 23 percent.

In terms of job opportunities, the top 10 most sought-after specializations were: customer service, education, IT/computer (particularly software), finance (general/cost accounting), clerical/administrative support, health care (nurse, medical support and assistant), marketing/business development, HR, sales and banking/financial services.

Digitally savvy

As for field specialization, those that recorded the most pay increases were in education/training (65 percent), health care (57 percent), administrative/HR (54 percent), sciences (53 percent), and computer/IT (50 percent).

Gioca said companies in industries thriving in the “new normal” were offering higher pay to candidates who were digitally savvy and could keep business going amid the pandemic.

“In education, for example, 67 percent of the ads were giving an increase in salary by 23 percent, as compared with 2020. However, 8 percent remains unchanged and there is a decrease of 25 percent in the volume of ads that give a lower salary offer,” he said.

Because the education sector has pivoted to virtual classrooms, he said, 65 percent of employers were willing to pay more.

Even employers in media, services and engineering now have to offer higher pay to attract talent, he added.

In specific industries, public service (64 percent), social services (52 percent) and electrical/electronics (50 percent) were among those that showed pay increases.
JobStreet observed that public sectors were in need of quality employees.

With the new ways of working, it said, tech jobs related to telecommunications were thriving and offering higher pay. The same trend was seen in digital marketing.

“On the flip side, oil and gas had a big decrease in terms of salaries, followed by hospitality and industrial machinery/equipment. BPO (business process outsourcing) firms were not spared,” Gioca said.

While the call center/IT-enabled services/BPO industry brings in the most jobs in the market with bigger offers, JobStreet noted that some firms could not evade the impact of the pandemic, with 41 percent of their job ads posting lower rates.

‘Survival’ mode

Explaining the decline in pay of accountants and other finance-related roles, Gioca said that in 2020, many employers offered high salaries to draw talents with such specializations. “But after a year, they have normalized their processes and their recruitment,” he said.

Workers in other industries took a hit in their paychecks due to businesses shifting to “survival” mode. Specializations requiring face-to-face interaction also saw a decline in salary offers—hotel/restaurant (35 percent), construction (36 percent), services (37 percent), and manufacturing (35 percent).

“The pandemic has had a huge impact on the labor market in the past couple of years. This also made the competition for quality talents steep among hirers, causing [them] to make adjustments in their offerings, policies and work environment,” Gioca said.

JobStreet also saw the impact of COVID-19 on companies in the National Capital Region (NCR), with 20 of 43 industries experiencing major pay cuts in position levels. Still, 16 industries—public service, science and technology, legal, beauty, health/fitness, HR, among others—had pay increases.

“The rising COVID-19 cases in NCR are relatively higher than in the rest of the country, which resulted in stricter protocols, causing companies to make adjustments in their offers. On the other hand, other industries in the region were able to thrive and have posed significant increases in their salary offers,” Gioca said.

Salary growth was also seen in areas with rising economic activity and close to NCR—the cities of Angeles, Iloilo and Calamba, and the provinces of Bulacan and Cavite—and in the provinces of Palawan and Batangas and the cities of General Santos, Cebu and Baguio.

With these salary movements, JobStreet advised jobseekers to not feel discouraged and to study other benefits like health conditions aside from the pay.

“Salary is just one factor when it comes to career planning,” said JobStreet senior sales manager Ryan Tordesillas. “We recommend that candidates ask their potential employers about other items, like benefits and company culture. It also pays to explore new skills relevant to specializations and/or industries with stable or rising pay.”

In 2021, JobStreet recorded more than 105 million job searches and over 75,000 job vacancies offered through the platform daily at any given time.