For Malaysian compaines, 2016 has been a tough year to date, according to Jobstreet.com’s second quarter 2016 Job Outlook survey.

The survey has found that a substantial number of companies are going through a rough patch.

"A notable 46 percent of respondents said that their businesses have been taking a hit in the past few months.

"When asked what were the contributing factors, 32 percent of the respondents said it’s because of the weak ringgit, 16 percent believed it’s due to inflation and 11 percent attributed it to the slump in oil prices," the jobsite said in a statement.

The Jobstreet survey polled a total of 475 human resource professionals across various industries.

It also noted national political issues as additional factors.

The study found that 54 percent of respondents are reassessing company expenditures, with some even considering downsizing.

“We had to reassess our company’s expenses to determine if we should shut down our non-profitable outlets and rearrange our business structure,” one of the respondents told Jobstreet.

However, this may not be reflected in the hiring intention of employers, as the Jobstreet survey findings showed almost the same results as the previous quarter, with half of the employers expecting to increase their hiring, 39 percent expecting no change and only 11 percent expecting a decrease.

“While some businesses may have been negatively impacted, certain sectors such as construction, retail and merchandise and computer and information technology are still seeing growth.

“We have over 27,000 jobs available on our website; jobseekers should remain positive and make sure that their JobStreet.com profiles are updated so that they don’t miss out on opportunities,” Jobstreet country manager Chook Yuh Yng said.

Major drop in online hiring

The Job Outlook survey seems to be echoed by another study that found tough economic conditions impacting online jobs hiring.

According to the Monster Employment Index (MEI) Malaysia survey conducted by rival jobsite Monster.com, Malaysia has witnessed a 111 percent decline, year-on-year, in online hiring as of March 2016.

This is based on real-time reviews of millions of job opportunities culled from a large representative of career websites and online job listings across Malaysia.

The survey, which tracks the growth of online recruitment in Malaysia, including results from across industries and occupations, also found that the logistics, courier/ freight/transport as well as shipping/marine sectors continued to experience the sharpest year-on-year drop at 30 percent.

The software, hardware, and telecommunications sectors experienced the least demand, with their job listings shrinking by 39 percent.

However, the advertising, market research, public relations, media and entertainment sectors reported their annual growth at 11 percent, while the online recruitment of customer service professionals grew by 10 percent.