The National Tech Association of Malaysia (Pikom) expects salaries of local digital professionals ranging from entry level to senior management level to continue on a downward trend in 2022, as findings showed a clear easing in the average salary of local digital professionals since 2019, it said in its report, Economic and Digital Job Market Outlook in Malaysia


Pikom has forecast a salary growth of only 0.1% for 2021 and 2% for 2022, from an average salary growth of 2.2% in 2020, due to the direct impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, including movement control orders (MCOs), economic uncertainties, and job losses.

CEO Ong Kian Yew said the salaries of digital professional have not changed much and have not not grown since 2019.

“To increase the salary of local digital professionals, the country needs to shift from a mover to a creator of technology. With innovation, we can expect higher growth in salaries in this industry,” Ong said in a virtual press conference after the launch of the report today.

The four key areas of the report are: an in-depth analysis of the economy, a critical review of the digital economy, domestic salary trends for 2021 and 2022, and a regional salary outlook.

Pikom has forecast lower gross domestic product growth of between 2% and 2.5% for 2021, and 5% growth for 2022.

Based on data from JobStreet, Pikom concluded that the downward trend in salaries for digital professionals started in 2019.

Despite this downward trajectory, the number of job advertisements for digital professionals in JobStreet remained high, reaching 135,451 in 2020 and 97,909 in June, 2021, according to JobStreet.

“Another interesting finding was that the number of senior manager positions has gone down compared to previous years, while demand has been high for low to mid-level jobs. Mainly due to the cost of hiring senior professionals is beyond the reach of many businesses struggling from the effects of the pandemic. Another possibility is that senior talents may tend to stay longer in the current employment due to the uncertainties in the job market.”

The report highlighted regional salaries from 11 selected economies and eight specific IT or digital job designations for this research covering common and traditional IT jobs such as software, hardware, network, project management, and consultancy.

Malaysia ranked seventh while the US topped the list followed by Singapore, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Countries behind Malaysia are Indonesia, Vietnam, India, and the Philippines. It is interesting to note that Thailand has surpassed Malaysia in average salary for digital jobs. This is a wake-up call for Malaysia as one of the prevailing factors in brain drain is financial compensation, the report said.

Pikom research and publication committee chairman Woon Tai Hai said the segments that have grown by leaps and bounds are e-commerce, online connectivity infrastructure, digital adoptions, digital payment platforms, and the digitalisation of some service oriented sectors.

“The term ‘transformation’ for some is perhaps obsolete and instead ‘acceleration’ is more appropriate. While the digital economic contribution to the national economy may have reached the 20% target, set many years ago, we are of the opinion that this digital journey may be further accelerated and will potentially ‘reshape’ the landscape of the digital industry. Also, MyDigital Blueprint and 5G deployment initiatives will be another set of impetus in driving the industry further,” Woon said.

source from: thesundaily.my

probation cant post link

Because Thailand downsized many it staff. U either high pay do multiple men work or unemployed.

Too many IT graduate in market. Supply > demand

Maybe also partly due to cabotage?

2024: AI take over IT work

This post has been edited by tikaram: Today, 09:49 AM

IT Salary, IT so broad liao. I seen companies Sales also they put under IT.

To those keep commenting IT downtrend, are you from IT? If you are, and salary still low, I would suggest you to review your career path, either you are sux in your skills or you don't know your strength and negotiate the best for yourself.


I'm an experienced IT professional and been in this industry since 2010, 2500% hike in basic salary in 11 years and still growing, excluding my side income

Edit: you may look at FANG if still have doubts on IT package.

This post has been edited by lifeofkuli: Today, 09:57 AM

I believe that's presales role, and it is an opportunity for IT to learn

Re route only. What's so hard?

Wee wee re route until jobs also get re routed.

#Janjiorangkita

unker seems quite clueless in IT field.

not complaining but Thai really focus much on their IT Development.

Most of the shop there using shopify which beat MY customer edi base on our database.

really aggressive TH.

It is all about digital right? from phone to software

2020 developer hire 9 out of 10
2021 developer hire 8 out of 9
2022 developer hire 7 out of 8
2023 developer hire 6 out of 7
2024 developer hire 4 out of 6

My son said wan.

He is IT from top ranking university in china

This post has been edited by tikaram: Today, 10:36 AM

No thanks, I avoid sales like a plague. They put everything under IT nowdays. Call center also IT, normal sales who selling internet package also IT. I am no expert but they need to divvy up which particular part of IT is having downtrend. As far as I am concern, those core IT jobs are still uptrend and still going higher like Software Engineer, Devops, Architect etc.

If the job can be taken over by AI, the person is probably not good to begin with.

Ya, I hate speak to AI when phone credit card company.

But that is the trend now.

Your son is a student. You know how ex those AI platform is? Normal company cannot afford. Also they are not as advanced to the point of replacing an actual engineer. More like a tool to make work faster.

You can't walk away from presentation if you wants high salary in IT, imagine you have excellent skillset but you didn't know how to present to the committee members, I would say presales role able to groom an IT tech person to another level.

My son graduated, now assit in developing harnest energy from orbited power station and part of it is developing AI system

I dont know what is that.

You can google shanghai Jio tong university. Top University there. All the Crazy fast speed train system in China is develop from this university

Soon go Thailand become maid.

Your son must be playing with Microsoft Excel in his hostel.

not to mention most commercial ML models needs to be trained and maintained. they can be useful for very specific tasks but still need ample human review and intervention, particularly decision making and analysis

That presentation is not pre sales. I have no issue presenting ideas etc. I think a good team lead should be able to present the idea etc.

Yeah, still not cost effective if you are a small company. Not every company can afford AI System. It's not cheap. Also not every business need AI.

How not to downtrend.. in 2020 itself how many big MNC in cyberjaya which closes it's door? we are talking about 5 figure lost of jobs.

Considering the average take home pay for such mnc are always in the region of 5 figure as well, just do your own maths on how bad it is for the it industry in malaysia.

Yeah, I am doing that right now. It's not as easy as people make it sound. They just simply pluck oh AI. I met a company before say they got AI. Turn out they using Facebook chat and call it AI cause it can automate the reply. Diuuuu

Jikens. Malaysian jikens 1000 baht/shot.

Semua 20k

Yeah me company can hire how many sit around

Actual do work only 1-2

That’s why all outsource India

Salah country of rape

i no tipu you la. he graduated d last year. but i no went his graduation bcs lock down 2020 ma

Now salary not much RM4K like that

I hear he said want to do master. Maybe start soon.

2024: AI take over IT work is real and it is extremely fast in China. My son said.



This post has been edited by tikaram: Today, 10:53 AM

Supplies byk, post kije ade sikit, gaji kena kurang la.. Common HR sense kn...

Because they can outsource very cheap from India .Why pay 5 figure when you can get 4 figure.

Family type. Home made.jiken.

Is cheap nowadays?

Too many untalented graduates.

working at Oxxxxx?

IT is ever changing. Basically tech is every changing. If AI taking over IT work, you simply have to learn on how to develop AI. There will always be new stuff, as long as you are willing to learn. Unlike other industry which can be made obsolete by IT, as long as you stay ahead of IT, there is always demand.

This post has been edited by c64: Today, 11:12 AM

coolest job man.

next time study betul betul, few of these companies are moving operation to singapore not indea. please explain.

SG is now in a condition where they do not have enough manpower to supply the IT sector. u tau ker tidak?

What to do, Malaysia racists and demand too much oranges.

some butthurt fact in IT field is there are many ppl talk cock sing song . Cannot work one. No quality with their delivery.This type of people really piss me off .Overpromised , underdelivered.
I have seen someone using RDMS with so many duplicate set of value everywhere as is they are using NOSQL product from a prominent IT firm.What is even funny is they like to use string to store all the value in DB.Dont know lookup key-value pair design ke?
Understanding of the product is wrong , hence we have a wrong product design.
In layman term , leg is for your to walk but you walk with your hand instead.
FML.

This post has been edited by teckyuan: Today, 11:26 AM

not a surprise when many dont even know what is DuitNow and its functionalities and features...

All si bodoh complaining why IT pay less when in fact it's IT job in Malaysia that pays lesser then the neighbouring countries.

Some idiot say FANG, sure never get offer from Amazon Malaysia or Google Malaysia. In Malaysia only got presales in IT for all faang companies
Google only has some rubbish sales marketing in malaysia
Give you localised pay that is around top 70% median pay range only.
So pathetic

It's Malaysia IT job sector that is the main arguement cause of why IT pay is in a down trend.

This post has been edited by TryingToSurvive: Today, 11:31 AM

The IT pay is getting so rubbish until IT ppl also thinking of doing other shit like foodpand/grab.

Eventually some of IT jobs will go to AI.
But 2024 is an unrealistic timeline.

交通大學 not bad.
If can get high pay tech job should just stay.
Unlikely will get this kind of opportunity in kecik country.

I hear everyone there before graduated already got job offer. many join Huawei develop os. but salary still low compare joining us IT company in china

top 5 university in china la

qs ranking world within 100

Kesian.

terima kasih cadangan, tapi awak bukan kerajaan....

/k trust PIKOM as source of truth & reality?
u sell pendrive online also consider as digital profesional in the eyes of pikom

This post has been edited by otakotak: Today, 12:05 PM

Best IT university in China if i am not mistaken.

Too big talent pools in China liao.
If can enter big companies, usually have to climb up slowly.

While you're not wrong, I challenge you to work with Thai IT / devops teams.

Lagi more headache.

Link? Or just another syiok sendiri statement?

MPKL is a well-known BN/PN cybertrooper.

Yeah, every single statement is full of gosok syiok sendiri style of wording. If cannot win, put down the other party that's better than us.

Mroe like there are less high value jobs here. With issues such as 51%, cabotage and the lousy 12th Malaysia plan, companies are looking out instead of coming here.

From their perspective, better let Malaysians do low level job, pay them cheap, and source high level jobs from elsewhere. At least when got issue where have to let go 51%, can easily jump to another country due to low skill needed. It's all part of Risk Management by IT companies.

People like pfizer is just a cyber trooper. Ignore him. He is a racist in denial.

No point answering him in full, just 1 word reply is all he deserves.

rindu zaman ph.

IT job is also very demanding. Even as a programmer/support u must take shit from project manager and customer.

"Eh when problem solve ar?" When? When ??? When?????

Cibai lah u, it gets solve when it's solved la, CB.

Then only paid rm5k. Sell shit on shoppee also better la.

I agree than many in IT is more of TCSS.

All wan to be project manager, just mange the project, but dun want to actually do the work. But manage project dunno how, keep asking subordinate or propose stupid design.

nope, IT is not like pasar borong, you really need skill and experience, things that newb cannot do means newb cannot do, quantity cannot determine the quality. like you have a 10 years database with millions of customers, it doesnt matter how poor are you, you will not let a fresh grad to handle that database.

It was a matter of time.

Sure is as we are maju in opposite direction. 1 step forward each side will make us 2 steps apart.

nothing suprise , my friend work in same company for 5 years , salary still cant reach 5k , start work was 4k salary

Why am i not suprised?

yea worked in local MNC companies where theres sooo many project managers, but all cant do their work. Only thinking of lunchtime take boss out go where for lunch..Weekends post on FB did activities with bos... More involved with the bos than the team. but when coming delivery date or after feedback from client, then start panic and maki maki the team. Till one point our members scream at the manager back lol. I think compare with overseas, theres like 5x more managers here in a single dept.

Personally I think its issue with the infrastructure here that leads to low pay. IT (depends on specialization too) has been very prominent and secure job especially now covid times, IMO. Even now so many ads on Internet promoting IT courses/certifications.

This post has been edited by dead_psycho: Today, 12:38 PM

last year increment 10%, this year increment + promotion 30%

what downtrend?

lul topkek, kena lowball kao kao

sohais still willing to work for sohai companies, why ah?

why so many sohais in this world?

Too much revenue in IT companies have to give to the legal racketeering 'services', so worker salary is impacted.

You know, I know la.

Also, some bosses who head these companies arent in it for the trade, but for the glamor, so most of the benefit goes to the boss to supplement his dream lifestyle.

Really? I still have positions open in my team, we pay above market rate too. Problem is not enough talent, so how to fill up higher paid roles?

Do wat? Can I join?

Agree. This happens a lot.

Senior software engineer for frontend / backend / full stack.

I don't think it's a problem if more IT professionals here do software development. Main problem is that many don't like to write software and do things with low value add and are easily replaceable to lower cost region.

Lack of quality software engineers are also causing development jobs to leave. It's all about getting talent for those jobs.

End up companies moving out since they can't get talented developers and low cost jobs can be moved elsewhere.

How is writing software/ scripts low value add?

I said they don't like to do that and prefer low value add jobs.

If the country is not careful, soon vietnam will surpass us.

that's why the Malaysian who developed the covidnow dashboard is working in Thailand.

Salary no need so high. Shopee item getting cheapers. Here mostly want cheap product

4k is a good start, all the best to him

rm 1800 enough.

local IT title cover too wide range especially low end sale, repair, call center, graduate and no graduate.

From what I know that pretty much a lots that in IT that at low end didn't learn much from newer stuff or wider range of knowledge than what their learn from their study.

Some youngster only know respond with teachers never teach.

There was several graduate when interview says they know about use this software, that software but end up did not know how to use as it is newer version than what they learn. Don't even know to search internet or watch online vid to learn after a month.

This post has been edited by stupiak07: Today, 02:16 PM

Singkie actually looking for analyst and not dev in their IT sector. Basically all high level post jer. Else minimum also fullstack capable... deswai their offering pay is so high, not for your average dev. Average dev tasks still outsourced to indea then bring back and do code review.

nop not really. my cousin sister is working with their Human Resource Ministry supplying alot of devops engineer/full stack/front end, back end basically all sorts of engineer which you can think of they would also need. For now they are still holding back only looking for local and PR talents in the country but because of the amount of demand they have in SG it's just a matter of time until they open up for foreign labours/expat once again.

The few big names which just got setup in SG is asking for thousands of headcount to fill which she is still working on it.

But to your point yes fullstack, DevOps Manager & Engineer it's highly sought after down there in singapore and the pay package is in the region of 8-12k sgd. Those are the ones which are highly sought after.

Im working as an IT professional here for quite some time already so yeah... altho i progress from DBA to DA to devops to BA and now doing SA.
my company also seeking for those devops and proper software engineer headcounts to fill lolol. As for fullstack.....

Frankly fullstack is over used hype word for a dev.... so far i rarely come across a proper fullstack but many think they are one especially those who use open sourced web frameworks. But when thrown them into a task on setting up a framework and database from scratch especially with a blank unix server then you can see their limitations.

Also technically their local talents are still very green that's why these current positions are mostly filled by foreigners with alot of experience. My current team mostly from china. So if anyone think their skills can make it, they should try now because the window is wide open right now....

can do them a favor to compete with ceca yindia because right now 90% of all applicants my company see is from there. Makes us wonder whole asean region no tech talents meh?

This post has been edited by Bonchi: Today, 03:02 PM

exactly but the business ppl won't know a nut shit about what IT folks are doing la.. that's why for them to hire Software Engineer.. they just tembak use the word full stack. but yes nearly every single company down there they want full stack, stull stack, full stack but there's also alot of open positions for infra engineers recently.

Oracle, Google they rather have their data center expansion in Singapore instead of malaysia can you imagine? Our operating cost is so much lower and yet even their plan for expansion in 2021 they are doing it in singapore. Now i'm just hoping Microsoft Azure data center won't last minute u-turn go singapore as well. Else you guys will be getting all the jobs while we just work in ah kow, ah bu and ali sdn bhd.

Yet here... we still want to talk about "oh your salary low, cause you stupid why no find a better job and bla bla bla". T-System + IBM already 5k jobs gone. 2 years before that was shell 1.6k employee. HP also shutdown and got taken over by another company and from there onwards it just continue to downsize.

Basically matter of time until all these IT MNC move out from Malaysia.

This post has been edited by kidmad: Today, 03:09 PM

Malaysia IT fate is going very stagnant.... deswai im in SG afterall because of the lack of opportunity for my skill set. mostly are just very basic dev task meanwhile the higher level positions are mostly sales and consultancy and already very rigid and no more openings. And with IT being such a young industry, those up there are also very young so no point hoping you will take their position

Then comp anies in malaysia have the habit of not trusting local products and all venture on branded solutions so most local software vendors die one by one especially those that produces their own solution due to lack of investments. Those that are doing well meanwhile are mostly official partnered vendors such as SAP, Oracle etc but its is more of a sales and operations role... not an IT role.

Then we have political instability and also weak infra. Who want to come set up hub here. Especially Imagine after setup then randomly few years later the gov demand 51% bumi equity hahahaha.

while singapore IT salary increase like hell

IT is a very broad spectrum. from data entry clerk to wire crimping technician to gps device installer to programmer to db admin and more are all under the big IT umbrella.
how certain are you that every single job that is encapsulated is not having any downtrend?

It's more like high level openings getting scarce as tech companies moving out while low level openings become widespread

This post has been edited by Bonchi: Today, 04:07 PM

got new trend emerging recently.. sg company open body shop company in malaysia, pay in myr but matching sgd rates and of course doing work for sg
aka a more eloborate wfh if you will

imagine instead pay sgd 2k+ and deal with hassle of permit and what not, they pay myr 6k-7k and probably able to pinch far better talent

Ser, pls do the needful

Very unstable as usually short term contract or project specific. Many of the companies that are doing this are also startups so they can randomly vanish without a notice aka run away with investors money lolol

Besides not just malaysia, they are doing this on the entire SEA region haha.

If youre doing this kinda scope, there's actually alot of opportunity from US and UK as well especially in game dev. A friend of mine making 5k pounds wfh wehhh

you're spot on on stability aspect. pay maybe be cushy for that experience range but no surprise if kena pump and dump

*ahem* because i advised a few of my singkie startup friends to try this option using gov grants. Friend is legit wan la but there are many in his batch really pump and dump.... many just hardcoded app front without any backend or storage for presentation purposes to fool investors, then setup some company and have staff to look real, get money then chowwww.

This post has been edited by Bonchi: Today, 04:30 PM

ayam has moved away

doing something else now

quite satisfy with the current salary

Meaning just setting up the environment for live/staging/dev deployment? I've worked in a bank where there's a team for just that, and I've worked in more than one small company where I have to do a majority of the legwork to get even the physical server running. Not surprised if there are fullstack devs that just need to worry about the solution and have someone else worry about the infrastructure

The meaning of fullstack is the capability of handling the infrastructure as well as the solutions. That's why it's a very loose word being thrown around nowadays especially with tools like firebase. The real fullstack guys are very very rare and are also very expensive haha. Mostly are project lead because they can lead the infra side and as well as the application side.

That's why as an IT professional, we have to keep learning and apply to our work

If you still work the way people work in 2010, of course the salary or package won't go up....

Good, at least you found your way.

Yea, full stack is basically kuli, you're the go-to guy if something in the company goes wrong

just for discussion, lets say at one point there are many mnc support centers here in malaysia. you being part of the support liine and you did all the right things to improve yourself and getting quite the nice package
then for reasons beyond your control these mnc decides to move their support centers out from malaysia
now you yourself needing to find new job since couldnt follow the company out.
but job of similar role and pay scale just became very scarce. other smaller companies with similar role simply cannot offer you same package as what those big mnc do even if you are the good at what you do

sux to be caught in downtrend but its far too much generalizing and being too optimistic to brush it off with just saying "keep improving and you will keep raking in more moneh regardless" especially when IT is very broad and the impact is felt different across the spectrum. something which you seem to ignore