Are Companies in APAC Offering More Remote & High-Level Job Opportunities?

• About two-fifths of the digital job opportunities in Australia and the Philippines are remote or hybrid 
• There are fewer remote & hybrid opportunities for digital roles in Japan and Singapore compared to other APAC countries 
• Nearly 9 in every 10 job opportunities in the digital sector are for entry to mid-level professionals

The job market has rapidly transformed along with accelerated digitalization in recent years. More digital roles have emerged; the use of technology has been more paramount than ever. And with COVID-19, work setups are more flexible as companies provide remote or hybrid work – at least in some countries. 

Hire Digital, a platform that provides marketing and digital teams with in-housing and staffing solutions, conducted a study that observed job opportunities across APAC. We discovered the differences of hybrid/remote opportunities across jobs in product and project management, marketing, software engineering, and design.

Furthermore, we uncover which digital field has the most opportunities for director/executive roles and entry to mid-level roles across all job types.

Fewer Remote/Hybrid Opportunities for Digital Roles in 4 Major APAC Countries

Australia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia are adapting the most to the hybrid/remote setup. In Australia, only 56% of the job openings are on-site, while 44% are remote or hybrid.

Meanwhile, the Philippines has the most remote work opportunities – nearly a fourth of the job openings recorded across three job sites (LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed) are remote. 

On the other hand, almost a fourth of Thailand’s job openings may be hybrid, but only one 1 in 20 are remote. Similarly, South Korea offers more hybrid jobs (20%) over remote jobs (7%) as well. 

It is interesting to note that three of these countries – Australia, Thailand, and Indonesia – are considering providing digital nomad visas to ex-pats. Thus, they potentially view remote/hybrid work as becoming an inevitable part of the job market. 

However, not all countries have adapted to these setups. According to data, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong do not offer as many remote or hybrid jobs. 

88% of the job opportunities in Japan are on-site, leaving only 12% for remote/hybrid work. Additionally, 81%, 80%, and 78% of jobs in Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong respectively are on-site. 

This data is backed up by a recent Kisi report, which revealed that major cities Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Hong Kong do have lower access to remote jobs. 

Entry and Mid-Level Job Opportunities in APAC Remain Resilient

Although there have been a staggering number of layoffs across Asian startups, it seems that entry and mid-level opportunities for digital roles across organizations remain resilient. 

Over a third of digital vacancies observed in the region were related to software engineering, and 46% of the job opportunities in this field are entry-level roles. In fact, over eight in ten roles are for entry, associate, and senior-level professionals. 

Moreover, software engineering-related jobs are mostly full-time roles – part-time offers only account for less than 1% of the vacancies. 

A high percentage of digital creatives/design opportunities are entry-level positions as well, accounting for 37% of the job opportunities. 

Meanwhile, nearly half of the job opportunities in both marketing and product/project management are for mid-level professionals. 

As for the high-level roles, product and project management offer the most opportunities for executives and directors (18%), while marketing and digital creatives/design’s high-level vacancies are 15% and 12% respectively.

Although this study may only be indicative and not conclusive, it reveals that entry-levels in APAC have abundant opportunities in software engineering and digital creatives/design, while marketing and product/project management offer more opportunities for mid-level and high-level professionals. 

Methodology

Hire Digital collected and filtered job vacancies in Japan, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines from LinkedIn, GlassDoor, and Indeed in November 2022. The job functions observed were limited to the field of product/project management, marketing, software engineering, and digital art/creatives/design. As for the experience-level data, we observed vacancies in the entire APAC region from LinkedIn.