According to the latest report from global online employment consultancy Monster, the Banking and Financial Services Industry in the Philippines is experiencing increased online hiring activity, as banks and financial institutions continue to view the country as a desirable destination for their business.

The latest Monster Employment Index (MEI) data for September 2015, shows that the Philippines has registered 10% growth in this sector when compared to September 2014. This is an increase of 8% from August’s year-over-year data.

The MEI is a monthly gauge of online job hiring activity, which records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. However, the Philippines was the only one of the three markets to register positive year-over-year growth in e-recruitment activity in the BFSI sector.

Singapore saw a -1% year-over-year decline in the BFSI online hiring between September 2014 and 2015, an improvement from August’s -13% year-over-year decline.

Malaysia experienced the steepest year-over-year decline at -5%. This is a significant drop from August’s 10% year-over-year growth, also the sector’s first negative year-over-year growth since April 2015.

BFSI Industry: Finance & Accounts Roles:

Despite the mostly negative year-over-year growths, the BFSI sector emerged as one of the top growth industries in online hiring across all three markets.

The trends in online hiring are also reflected the demands for Finance and Account professionals in Singapore and Philippines, where both markets saw a slight improvement in year-over-year growth between September 2014 and 2015. This is despite overall negative growth, at -8 and -7% respectively.

Malaysia saw the steepest decline at -9% year-over-year, falling from August’s 3% year-over-year growth.

“Online hiring activity in Southeast Asia is making a slow recovery in the BFSI sector, with the exception of Malaysia, which has come as a surprise given its hopeful outlook back in August where it performed well ahead of Philippines and Singapore. The Malaysian banking sector has been urged to look into renewing its business model, so slower growth in online hiring may be expected in the coming months,” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong).

“The Philippines’ lack of dependence on any external funding has helped built its resilience from external threats brought about by the global economic slowdown. While employers remain careful when it comes to hiring new candidates, they are not putting in any less effort in hiring.”

The Monster Employment Index is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity, based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career Web sites and online job listings across Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. The Index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry.