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For Employer

Who is the 2019 Job Candidate?

Karina

January 24 • 10 min read

who-is-the-2019-job-candidate

Young, tech savvy, and with an orientation in sales and finance are just some of the characteristics employers can expect of today’s job candidates

Like the immense competition for customers and clients, there is a war for talent that continues to be waged between companies, and to some extent, even between entire industries. Hiring, and subsequently retaining, qualified employees presents a slew of challenges from, at best, determining who is most qualified among the candidates available, to, at worst, having trouble finding anyone qualified to begin with.

In these and other related scenarios, it helps to have current insight on the available workforce, so that, as an entity always on the lookout for the best talent, you not only know of who is available to add to your employ, but also where to best find them, and what are the skills they immediately offer as well as what you can help them learn and improve on.

With the help of it’s over a million-and-a-half registered job seekers and counting, Kalibrr gives a glimpse of the current makeup of the present-day job candidate who looks and applies for work online.

Today’s job candidate is young

Internet or tech savvy is a characteristic commonly associated with today’s youth, and this is most evident in the workforce looking online for employment. The average age for the online job candidate is presently 28 years old, and will likely become even younger as more college students, including those who stayed in school longer due to the K-12 system, will graduate in the coming years.

Between age groups, job candidates aged 21 to 25 years old comprise majority, or as much as over 40%, of those looking online. This is testament to how the Millennial, and soon Generation Z, will eventually dominate the workforce, and will do so utilizing tech to find opportunities, add to their skills, and overall expand their careers.

who-is-the-2019-job-candidate

From the “big” city

As industries such as I.T., finance, and others with an increasing number in-demand jobs have remained concentrated in the National Capital Region, so has a significant number of professionals looking for work. Over half of the online population of job candidates have indicated that they reside and are/or looking for work in NCR.

Expectedly, the neighboring Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon (CALABARZON) region is where the second most professionals are. However, the margin between NCR and CALABARZON remains glaring, with the former being the home of almost three times more job candidates than that of the latter.

A similar trend continues to be observed with the Visayas and Mindanao regions. As the Cebu or Central Visayas Region and Davao region continues to be the respective centers of business for the two, the concentration of job seekers accordingly follows, with the areas seeing the most online job seekers throughout the region.

Is college educated

Although an increasing number of employers have started to qualify candidates more for their skills rather than their formal education, those who graduated college still notably comprise as much as over 70% of job candidates.

Among that group, many favored courses related to popular industries. IT professionals are needed almost everywhere thanks to the continued digitization of many business and processes, and as such, I.T. degrees were the most among jobseekers, accounting for 18% in the top twenty of most graduated courses. Related Computer Science courses (over 8%) courses have been the third-most, while Accountancy (over 10%) is second.

The schools where most of these job-candidates have graduated include The Polytechnic University of the Philippines, the University of Santo Tomas, the University of the Philippines, Far Eastern University, and De La Salle University.

who-is-the-2019-job-candidateHas little years’ worth of work experience

Along with majority of professionals’ youth is their having little to no work experience. Currently, almost 60% of the professionals going online to look and apply for jobs possess just around a year’s worth of experience.

Their youth is also reflected in the the job levels most of them have reached so far, with around 68% having held associate positions, and only 12% having become supervisors, while 10% were/are managers, and another 10% were higher level executives.

Yet is significantly skilled

While many of today’s professionals’ work experiences are considerably little in terms of time, it does not necessarily equate to being of little significance. A characteristic commonly attributed to most of today’s generation professionals is the ability to learn new skills and adapt change, given many jobs today expand quickly in terms of responsibilities. They also have tendency to move on to other jobs just as quick, often looking for new challenges when they feel the have little more to contribute at their prior roles.

At 14%, jobs in sales and marketing are the most have held, as related roles are needed in just about any industry. Accounting and finance (12.84%) jobs are also those that always need to be filled, hence being the second-most among professionals previous functions. I.T. and software are third-most, and can be expected to increase in the future as roles in the industry continue to expand or be created along with the tech.

who-is-the-2019-job-candidate

Save for a sudden and massive change in industry and local governance, the present workforce will seemingly fit the aforementioned profile for the immediate future. They are not only becoming younger thanks to the emergence of Millennial and Gen Z professionals, but are also becoming increasingly skilled thanks to both wider availability of needed training and classes, and the new experiences they gain from their ever expanding job roles.


Kalibrr is a technology company that aims to transform how candidates find jobs and how companies hire talent. Placing the candidate experience at the center of everything it does, the company continues to attract the best talents from all over, with 1.6 million professionals and counting. Kalibrr ultimately connects these talents to companies in search of their next generation of leaders.

The only end-to-end recruitment solutions provider in Southeast Asia, Kalibrr is headquartered in Makati, Philippines, with offices in San Francisco, California and Jakarta, Indonesia. Established in 2012, it has served over 18,000 clients, and is backed by some of the world’s most powerful start-up incubators and venture capitalists. These include Y Combinator, Omidyar Network, Patamar Capital, Wavemaker Partners, and Kickstart Ventures.

Need help with recruitment? Sign up for Kalibrr and start hiring better today! For more business and recruiter advice, follow Kalibrr on FacebookTwitterLinkedIn, and Instagram.

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About The Writer

Hello, my name is Karina and I work as a freelance contributor at Kalibrr. I enjoy reading self-improvement books and working out. More about Karina

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