MANILA -- Job seekers and college freshmen who are undecided over their career paths should consider these 6 industries that are poised to have the most openings and high salaries, according to recruitment portal Jobstreet.com.

Demand for information technology professionals will be sustained, as well as those in administrative and manufacturing positions, Jobstreet.com Philippines marketing specialist Monica Palomares told ABS CBN News.

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Here are the 6 most promising industries for jobs, according to Jobstreet.com:

BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING

In 2017, BPOs accounted for nearly half of all postings on Jobstreet.com, even as the industry looks increasingly towards artificial intelligence and automation to replace tasks such as simple call-taking.

Jobs in BPO are in information technology and healthcare. These companies also accept applicants from a wide field including communications, business, medicine even college undergraduates.

"For the past several years half of the demand is really coming from the BPO sector and within BPO, customer service is the still the number one specialization," she said.

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Tasks related to IT span all major industries. The sector ranked 6th in terms of salary based on Jobstreet.com's 2018 report, with junior software analysts and front-end developers receiving an entry-level rate of P21,947 per month.

"In the future we’ll still see a rise in IT and technology based jobs, software engineers or even in analytics,” Palomares said.

DATA ANALYTICS AND SECURITY

Companies are looking for those who can analyze and interpret data, with backgrounds in statistics and applied mathematics, Palomares said. There is also growing demand for data security professionals, she said.

"They need people with expertise, the companies are more willing to invest to attract you more," she said.

Those who plan to pursue careers in this field, however, should bear in mind that they need to constantly update their skills as the demands of their roles evolve.

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LEGAL AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

In Jobstreet's 2017 study, entry level law-related positions and PR professionals earn P27,355 and P24,675 respectively, making the two fields the first and second highest paying jobs for fresh graduates.

The limited number of law graduates pushes salaries upwards, while companies investing in their image drive demand for PR professionals, Palomares said.

TECHNICAL VOCATIONAL, RETAIL AND MANUFACTURING

Without a college degree, high school and technical vocational graduates can still explore job opportunities in the retail, manufacturing and construction sector, Palomares said.

"There’s still a lot of demand for them considering the booming construction and manufacturing industry," she said.

"We don’t want to push people to go to IT just because technology is the future. If you want to be ready for the future take electives, take a lot of things that are already available on the internet," she said.

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OPERATIONAL AND BACKBONE POSITIONS

There's still demand for low-skilled jobs, even if some industries automate and shift to AI, said Palomares.

"If they’re not really sure of the course that they would want to take, they can go for operational type of courses like sales, marketing, human resources, administrative," she said.

In the banking sector, there's still a need for human tellers since not all of their functions can be automated yet, she said.