Demand for hiring new employees remained positive among Malaysian companies despite the soft employment market, said job portal, Jobstreet.com.

Its Country Manager Chook Yuh Yng said according to its survey last month, 54 per cent of the companies across all sectors still had strong hiring intentions to replace or fill essential roles.

"In addition, about 12 per cent of employers will maintain their hiring rate while 18 per cent of employers surveyed indicated their hiring will increase this year," she told reporters after launching their 19th edition of the Career and Training Fair 2017, here today.

Chook said even with the uncertain economic times, the portal still had at least 20,000 job listings posted daily connecting over 3.4 million of candidates with over 80,000 of employers.

"From the survey, we also found that 70 per cent of the respondents were cautious in this market due to the softening ringgit against the US dollar and inflation, amongst others," said Chook.

She added, industries that would top the hiring this year included information technology, education and manufacturing.

Meanwhile, she said about 100 local employers were present at the three-day exhibition at Mid Valley Exhibition Centre starting today.

"We expected to attract over 100,000 jobseekers at this exhibition this year compared with 91,000 last year," she said. -- BERNAMA