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The report is compiled by PIKOM, the National ICT Association of Malaysia, with the help of Jobstreet.com (who supplies latest salary information) and KPMG (who analyses the country’s current economic outlook). Other collaborators include ZDNet Asia, Robert Walters, Kelly Services, Active TechPros IT and the Malaysian Employers Federation.
This report has a vision to migrate Malaysia from a ‘consumption-based’ to ‘creative-based’ in terms of ICT industry. To do that, the nation needs a game-changing strategy.
The report cited that home-grown graduates are lacking in terms of:
It suggests that the Malaysian Education Systems and their Curriculum are partly to blame and should be reviewed as soon as possible.
While waiting for that to happen, other strategies can be implemented to mitigate these issues:
1.) Collaboration between academia and industry to narrow the gap between supply and demand issues. 2.) Collaboration between institution of higher learning of local and overseas. 3.) Ensuring the quality of institution of higher learning.
Average Monthly Salary
The average monthly salary of ICT professionals in Malaysia was RM6,240 in 2011. This increase was well above the average inflation rate of 3.2% as cited earlier, resulting in comfortable living for ICT professionals in Malaysia. Given the prospective outlook for the economy and other positive factors within the ICT industry, PIKOM anticipates a 9.0% rise in the average salary of ICT professionals in 2012, which would average out to RM6,800 per month.
The average monthly salary paid to fresh ICT graduates at entry level across key industries. On average, fresh entrants in the ICT job market earned RM2,238 in 2011, as opposed to salaries of between RM1,800 and RM2,000 in previous years.
The semiconductor and wafer fabrication industries paid the highest monthly salary of RM3,280 to fresh graduates in 2011. This was followed by manufacturing and the oil & gas sector, especially in the case of large corporations and multinationals where fresh ICT graduates were paid average monthly salaries of RM2,508 and RM2,418 respectively.
Taking into consideration all categories of ICT jobs, oil & gas was the top-paying industry, where on an average ICT professionals earned a monthly salary of RM8,020. The data showed that oil & gas was the top paying industry for ICT professionals in the senior management level where they were paid an average of RM16,146. Likewise, oil & gas was the top paymaster for the senior executive level with an average monthly salary of RM7,500. At the managerial level, however, electrical and electronics was the highest paying sector where middle managers in ICT earned an average of RM14,091. At the junior executive level, chemical industries were the highest paying where ICT professionals on an average earned RM4,890 per month.
ICT Industry Segments and ICT User Industries – No big difference!
There is no clear cut distinction in salaries earned by ICT professionals in the ICT industry segments and ICT user industries.
The average monthly salary earned by junior ICT executives in ICT industry segments was RM3,275, which was 3.6% higher than their counterparts in the ICT user industries comprising banking, insurance, agriculture, manufacturing, oil and gas sector etc. Similarly, in the managerial category, the earning capacity of ICT professionals in the ICT industry at RM8,623 per month was higher by 7.2% than those working in the ICT user industries, who on an average took home RM8,045. In the senior executive level, however, ICT professionals in the ICT industry segments were 5.9% lower than their counterparts in the ICT user industries.
Selected ICT Job Functions
ICT professionals in high demand functions experienced a significant rise in salary in 2011. The software development applications professionals experienced on an average a 19.3% rise in monthly salary from RM6,960 in 2010 to RM8,310 in 2011. Similarly, ICT professionals in enterprise resource planning (ERP)/business applications received a 14.5% increment from RM7,550 in 2010 to RM8,650 in 2011. The lowest increment movement was in the IT Security Analyst function which experienced a modest 4.5% increase from RM8,410 in 2010 to RM8,780 in 2011. However, this function group holds the highest average earnings which signifies its unique and much sought after skills.
Employment Size
Employment size matters in determining the average monthly salary for employees. The ICT professionals are paid higher salaries in organisations with larger workforce numbers.
Corporations or multinationals (MNCs) with a total employment of more than 1,000 persons paid an average monthly salary of RM7,052, which was 36.4% more than companies with fewer than 100 people, where the average monthly salary was pegged at RM5,169. Mid-sized companies with between 100 and 999 employees paid an average monthly salary of RM6,737, higher by 29.5% in comparison to average monthly salary paid in companies with workforces below 100.
Geographic Locations
ICT professionals working in Klang Valley comprising Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and the industrial zones of Selangor earned an average monthly salary of RM6,671. In comparison, ICT professionals in Penang had a marginal decrease of 1.7%, netting an average monthly salary of RM6,559. The dip was more significant in Johor with a 7.0% decrease in comparison with Penang and 8.6% decrease in comparison with the Klang Valley. The average monthly salary earned by ICT professionals in Johor was only RM6,097.
Hot ICT Jobs
Certain technical skills and functions appear to be in high demand, such as C#, C++, .Net developers, SAP certification, IT audit and security consultants, data warehousing, business intelligence analysts, senior Oracle and SQL DBAs and Cisco certified engineering disciplines. Similarly, jobs such as software development managers, lead software developers, Unix specialists, senior system engineers, IT managers, SAP consultants, websphere application developers, system engineers, network administrators and helpdesk analysts are in higher demand. Besides typical technical and engineering specialisations, PIKOM also anticipates a growing demand for soft skill-type jobs in project management, business process improvement and quality improvement.
Conclusion:
The JobStreet.com Employment Confidence Index (JECI) indicates that the job market is average, about 50% of job applicants will get job and it is much lower than in 2011. 82% of respondents felt that either the national economy is slowing down or remaining stagnant or are uncertain about the economic performance; only 18% expressed confidence in the national economy.
44% of respondents felt that their companies would be hiring fewer people and replacing or filling essential positions in the next 12 months. Only 23% are confident their company would be expanding their businesses, hence hiring more people.
Given the positive economic outlook for Malaysia – with a 5.1% growth in GDP in 2013 as forecasted by the World Bank. PIKOM has projected at least 9.0% growth in average remuneration offered to ICT professionals in 2012. It should be noted that the ICT sector is still being plagued by the shortage in the supply of ICT graduates especially those deemed employable and who have skills sets compatible with industry needs.
