Jobseekers have reason to cheer, for the number of jobs available in Singapore jumped by 21% y-o-y in 3Q2021.
This follows growth opportunities across key sectors such as engineering & manufacturing (up 48%), digital (up 27%) and technology (up 17%), global recruitment specialist Michael Page Singapore reveals.
“These optimistic figures are indicative of the market conditions in Singapore improving and will continue to hold ground because we foresee various industries to be on the rise,” says Nilay Khandelwal, managing director of Michael Page Singapore.
His comment comes as more companies here have recognised that securing the right talent will give them a competitive edge.
See: Singapore labour market improves in 1Q21, but unemployment rate still higher than pre-pandemic levels
As such, many employers have a better indication of the skills they want their prospective employees to have and have thus adopted a “good attraction strategy which goes beyond just high salaries,” notes Khandelwal.
See also: Retrenchments increase in 3Q2023; economic headwinds to continue weighing on labour market: MOM
Opportunities have come up namely in the digital space, with more operations and services moving online.
A further boost comes as Singapore remains an “ideal strategic digital location” from an infrastructure and talent standpoint.
According to Khandelwal, these “special profiles” are the most talked about right now. Examples of such professionals include product managers, product engineers and even individuals who have moved into digital roles from a marketing function.
See also: Singapore real income falls 2.3% this year as inflation lingers
“They are usually the brains behind the digital product and will act as a bridge between business and technical engineers working on product development,” says Khandelwal, adding that there has also been steady demand for product designers.
Meanwhile, the open job positions in engineering & manufacturing almost doubled as more companies aligned themselves with the nation’s industry 4.0 initiatives in a bid to increase productivity and make up for shortages in staff.
This saw more companies hiring for roles in automation, digitalisation, technical or pre-sales and R&D functions, notes Khandelwal.
Michael Page Singapore’s findings follows an improvement in the labour market indicators released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Oct 29.
Unemployment figures for one fell by 0.1 percentage points in September for all categories, bringing the overall unemployment rate to 2.6%. Resident unemployment came in at 3.5% while citizen unemployment stood at 3.7%.
Meanwhile, total employment, excluding migrant domestic workers, fell by 3,400 in 3Q2021, easing from the previous quarter’s decline of 16,300.
In this time, retrenchments dipped slightly to 2,000, compared to 2,340 in the previous quarter.
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75% of the layoffs in 3Q2021 came from the services industry.
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Touching on the latest numbers, manpower minister Tan See Leng said that the “labour market remained resilient in spite of the return to the Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) restrictions in July”.
"There continued to be employment opportunities for residents, especially in the outward-oriented sectors such as professional services and financial services," he said.
However, MOM cautions that the labour market is slated to remain ‘uneven’ with resident employment to grow in the outward-oriented sectors. Conversely, it points out that the resident workforce has been trimmed in sectors like food and beverage services, retail trade and accommodation.
Cover image: file
