These In-Demand Digital Skills Are Exactly What M’sian & ASEAN Employers Are Looking For

As we have spent more than a year shifting between various states of the MCO, most of us have not stepped into the office for a long while. There may even be new colleagues who have never been to the office and you have no idea what they look like!

From June 2020 to April 2021, MDEC reported that there was a 300% increase in digital job vacancies on five different platforms. In the press release made available to WORLD OF BUZZ, the digital job vacancies totalled to 19,000 in June 2020 and rose to more than 56,000 vacancies in March 2021.

LinkedIn is the platform that houses the bulk of these vacancies. 76% of the vacancies looked for individuals with experience while 20% looked for fresh graduates. 4% of them are internships.

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The vacancies are mostly from these industries:

• Software development
• Data science
• IT services
• E-commerce

Based on data from LinkedIn Talent Insights (LTI), these skills are very much in demand by employers:

In Malaysia,

1. Analytical Skills
2. Engineering
3. Computer Science
4. Software Development
5. Programming
6. SQL
7. Lead
8. JavaScript
9. Information Technology
10. Cloud Computing

However, the skills in-demand are a little different when compared to those in South-East Asia:

1. SQL
2. Analytical Skills
3. Software Development
4. Engineering
5. Programming
6. JavaScript
7. Java
8. Cloud Computing
9. Python
10. Information Technology

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These job listings don’t only come from the IT companies but also from companies dealing with marketing, cosmetics, music and tobacco. Other than that, MDEC has also identified that there are more than 240,000 of these digital talents that are spread out in Selangor, KL, Johor, Penang and Melaka. The most popular job posts for these digital talents are executives, specialists, digital marketing managers, data scientists, software engineers, head of digital divisions and YouTubers.

Data from LTI also showed that since a year ago, there has been an increase of 20 to 30% of freelancers/ YouTubers.

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As the job market is ever-competitive and rapidly changing, we must continue to equip ourselves with skills to make sure that we’re a step ahead. 

Also read: Did You Know There Are 200 FREE Courses Online For Malaysians To Upskill Themselves?