The 7 Growth-Focused Industries That We Will See More In The Future

The world of work in Asia is changing now that 2019 is here. The Internet economy is set to create 1.7 million full-time jobs in Southeast Asia by 2025, three times the number in 2018, reported in a Google-Temasek study. It is also expected that the growth of skilled jobs is now at a rate of 10 per cent per year.

With mobile internet, advances in computing power and big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we will fundamentally see a change in the nature of work and the way companies operate. There will be a change in the way workforce transformation accelerates to harness new technologies, with significant upskilling in order to reach higher levels of efficiency.

Even with the wave of new technologies, human skills will not be replaced as we will continue to do things that require creative intelligence.

In this article, we look at the trends expected in 2019 and beyond across different industries in Asia.

#1 Financial Services and Fintech

Demand in this field is only going to grow especially in the field of Fintech and Financial Services industry. The sectors’ swift rise is largely due to Fintech being developed not just by banks and established tech giants, but also by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).  We will also see tech hiring at banks surging in Singapore and Hong Kong as several firms develop new client apps and upgrade their legacy IT systems in the cities.

IT has emerged as a key area driving hiring demand across financial services and some of these roles include cyber security, data analytics and artificial intelligence.

Moreover, recruitment companies in Hong Kong and Singapore have seen a surge in enquires from London-based banking professionals wanting to relocate to Asia, due to the uncertainty over Brexit.

It is predicted that by 2020, there will be 100,000 job losses and a decline in the gross value of the financial services sector in the UK of up to 9.5%.

#2 Pharma and Life Sciences

Experienced industry talent in the pharma industry in Asia is scarce, and companies are looking to compete for the best. According to recent reports, leadership-level talent with the right skills to take on a general manager or senior role in a foreign major pharma or a medical company is few and far between. A lot of companies have sent overseas trusted talent from within the company to lead the business at the country GM level.

#3 Data Analysts and Scientists

As organisations become data-centric, data preparation becomes essential. Data analysts do not only have analytical skills as they have a natural propensity for mathematics, statistics and computer programming. According to the WEF ‘Future of Work’ report, by 2020, data analysts will be in high demand in companies around the world. This is further established by IBM, which claims that the annual demand for data scientists, data developers and data engineers will lead to 700,000 new recruitments by 2020.

With the amount of digital data that is used and digested on a day-to-day basis from our smartphones, emails, subscriptions to Google searches, the information needs to be managed and analysed, making the role of a data analyst and scientist, the most sought-after job. Even the economist, Hal Varian Ronald has defined this role as “the sexiest job of the 21st century”.

#4 E-commerce

In November 2018, Google and Temasek updated their industry study stating that e-commerce in Asia will be worth US$240 billion by the year 2025. E-commerce companies in Asia are showing no signs in slowing down in its hiring rate.

According to a market study, the real challenge comes when employing highly-skilled professionals in functions such as software engineering, digital marketing, data science, and product marketing.

Hiring people for these technical roles may be particularly challenging as the rapid growth of e-commerce means that there is no prior supply of talents in the digital workforce in the previous years. As such, the year 2019 and beyond will see e-commerce companies aggressively hiring talents with relevant experience and knowledge.

#5 Human Resources

The future of work belongs to companies who develop new roles to increase employee benefits: such as ‘Head of People and Culture’. Jobs like these focus on rapidly scaling a company’s People Experience department, further tasked with championing culture, diversity and change programmes for the benefit of retaining employees.

#6 Digital Marketing

The digital marketing industry will pivot to a more technology-based role, where understanding and mastering ‘big data’ remains essential. Being data savvy is the only way to remain relevant in the digital marketing landscape, in order to merge digital and social marketing channels.

This calls for candidates in Asia who has experience in real time data collection and analytics tools, interactive dashboards and advanced understanding of data segmentation.

#7 Retail and Luxury

Despite slowing market, demand for luxury and retail talent is on the rise. According to PwC, sales growth in the region will be the fastest globally over the next three years, averaging 8.5% in monetary terms and 4.6% in average volume.

Since the last two years, brands in Asia have been hiring talent outside of the luxury retail industry, particularly those who have strong networks of high net-worth clients, Customer Relationship Management expertise, as well as candidates with high-end customer service backgrounds.

In a nutshell, Asia will be a rich hunting ground for talents in these industries and companies in this region will need to invest in hiring the right talent to remain competitive on the global stage.

If you are a company looking to grow your team or a talent with an agile learning mindset willing to spread your wings in these industries, get in touch with us at The Edge.