In the 15th edition of its Jobs Situation Report released on Dec 10, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) reported that there are close to 5,500 job openings in the healthcare sector, with 75% (or 4,125) long-term jobs available.
Of the 75%, close to 30% are in healthcare professional and executive roles such as nurses and allied health professionals, while the remaining 70% are in healthcare support and administrative support roles such as healthcare and therapy assistants.
Among the openings, over 80% are offered by public healthcare organisations such as SingHealth, National University Health System and National Healthcare Group, as well as community care organisations such as Ren Ci Hospital, Vanguard Healthcare Pte Ltd and St Luke’s Eldercare Ltd.
The remaining 20% are offered by private groups such as Parkway Hospitals Singapore Pte Ltd, Healthway Medical Group Pte Ltd and Q & M Dental Centre Pte Ltd.
The 5,500 openings are part of the 6,700 long-term and short-term jobs, traineeship and attachments, as well as training openings in the sector as at end November.
There are 470 positions available under traineeship and attachments, while there are 760 openings for training.
Salary ranges for major job roles such as nurses, allied health professionals and support care, range from $3,300 to $5,200; $4,100 to $5,000; and $1,800 to $2,300 respectively.
As at end August, the sector was one of the top sectors, just behind Infocomm and Communications Technology to offer SGUnited Jobs and Skills opportunities, according to the Ministry.
Between April to end November, close to 8,340 jobseekers have been placed into jobs, company-hosted traineeships and attachments, as well as enrolled in places for training.
Some 71% (or 5,510) of the jobseekers were placed into short-term jobs including swabbers and swab assistants to support Covid-19 related operations.
Helping locals enter and thrive in the healthcare industry
There may be a wide range of jobs available in the healthcare industry, but those entering regulated roles such as nurses and allied health professions require relevant qualifications.
Existing workers in the sector will also have to stay up to date with the latest developments in healthcare practices.
On this, the government and the healthcare industry have implemented a three-pronged approach to support Singaporeans seeking to enter the sector.
One such approach is to prepare young locals for a career in healthcare by introducing new undergraduate allied health programmes such as the recently-introduced Dietetics and Nutrition in 2019 and Speech and Language Therapy in 2020.
Another is to support fresh graduates and mid-career jobseekers to enter the sector through career conversion programmes, redesigning healthcare jobs and through traineeships, attachments and skills training.
Lastly, existing healthcare workers are given opportunities for continuous training and development for them to stay relevant and to continue providing quality healthcare in a fast-changing landscape.
“Looking at both immediate and longer-term needs, there is still growing demand for manpower in the sector,” says the Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo. “In the immediate term – we are still in the midst of battling Covid-19 and the fight is ongoing. Therefore, temporary roles such as swabbers have been created and are still needed. We also had to supplement the existing workforce - some of whom had to be redeployed. For instance, when nurses were redeployed, care ambassadors were brought in to ensure that the patient support remained of good quality.”
“In the longer term, it is quite clear that with an ageing population and rising incidence of chronic diseases, there will be a need for more healthcare facilities,” she adds.
