Tech jobs in Asia remain “strong” despite tech layoffs, says Peter Bithos.
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Asia may be struggling with labor shortages in the wake of the pandemic, but Peter Bithos, chief executive of job portal operator Seek Asia, says it’s not the same as the “big resignations” in North America.
Instead, Asia’s workforce lacks people with the skills to fill corporate tech roles, Bithos told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”
“What we’ve been seeing is a massive reconfiguration of the types of talent that are needed in the workforce,” he said. According to Bithos, this is reflected in an increase in tech job listings on the Seek platform, which grew 66% year-over-year.
Almost “every sector of the economy outside of tech” is hiring tech workers, Bithos explained, despite tech companies laying off workers. Tech jobs across Asia remain strong and “in very high demand,” he added.
A search of job portals JobsDB and JobStreet, run by Seek Asia, showed 57,902 vacancies under the information technology category in six Asian economies: Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.
Applicants for these tech roles rose 14%, which Bitos said could be due to layoffs in the tech sector and people feeling “enough confident” to look for work as the pandemic ends.
Bithos said there are still plenty of job opportunities for laid-off workers, though those positions may not be at “pure tech” companies.
Almost half of tech jobs fastest growing jobs In Singapore for the past five years, LinkedIn in its 2023 “Jobs on the Rise” list. These include jobs like cybersecurity engineer, backend developer, and artificial intelligence engineer.