Online hiring in the Philippines continued to grow at the annual clip of 17 percent in December last year.

But according to India’s monster.com, this was significantly lower than the 23 percent expansion online hiring activities posted the previous November when this averaged 23 percent.

The employment metrics firm has regularly surveyed the online hiring landscape in the Philippines and in Malaysia since May 2015 some five years since the proprietary index first launched in India.

In the latest survey, the industry sector posted the best growth performance for the period averaging 34 percent from 26 percent in November, followed by the healthcare sector and then by retail, which also grew by 33 percent and 32 percent, respectively.

Other sectors posting notable growth included logistics, which grew 26 percent in December, the BSFI or the banking, financial services and insurance which expanded by 19 percent and the advertising sector which grew by 13 percent.

The survey portal also reported that of the 12 industries it kept a keen eye on, the only industry posting a decline during the period was education, which fell 8 percent, an acceleration from a drop of only 5 percent in November.

The so-called monster employment index or MEI measures online job posting activities on a monthly basis and shows the speed at which industrial and occupational recruitment expands or contracts.

The highest growth was recorded by the purchase/logistics/supply chain profession with 35 percent growth over a period of one year.

This was followed by healthcare and finance and accounts with 29 percent and 26 percent growth between December 2017 and 2018, respectively.