share on
In 2023, Singapore saw a growing demand for emerging roles such as data scientists, reflecting an increasing sectorial demand for data-driven decision-making in businesses.
MOM released its Job Vacancies 2023 Report on 25 March 2024 (Monday), revealing that there was a high demand for PMET workers in the growth sectors, as well as a rise in demand for emerging roles such as data scientists in 2023.
According to the report, the demand for high-skilled tech talents remained strong in 2023, despite the restructuring and layoffs in tech firms.
Further, the percentage of newly created positions increased from 38.7% in 2022 to 47.3% in 2023, due to business expansion into existing and new functions.
PMETs
The software, web & multimedia developer continued to rank at the top of all PMET vacancies in 2023, similar to in 2022.
Due to the high demand for these employees, employers were willing to pay more to fill these positions, compared to the year before.
In 2023, the number of job openings for business development and sales positions rose as establishments sought to expand their businesses and improve the efficiency of their processes.
Further, most of the top ten jobs in demand saw an increase in the minimum salary which employers were willing to offer.
Here is the list of the top ten PMET job vacancies in 2023:
- Software, web & multimedia developer
- Teaching & training professional
- Commercial & marketing sales executive
- Management executive
- Budgeting & financial accounting manager
- Industrial & production engineer
- Management & business consultant
- Systems analyst
- Registered nurse & other nursing professional
- Business development manager
Non-PMETs
For non-PMET roles, there was little change in the top 10 list in 2023 compared to the previous year.
The top three jobs that were in demand were waiters, cleaners, and shop sales assistants respectively, reflecting the growth in the retail trade and food & beverage services sectors.
Here is the list of the top ten non-PMET job vacancies for 2023:
- Waiter
- Cleaner
- Shop sales assistant
- Receptionist, customer service & information clerk
- Construction labourer
- Security guard
- General office clerk
- Heavy truck & lorry driver
- Supervisor/general foreman (Building & related trades)
- Healthcare assistant
Along with the above, the report revealed further hiring trends for 2023:
- Newly created positions made up 47.3% of vacancies in 2023.
According to the report, the majority (or 65.2%) of the newly created positions were a result of an expansion of existing business functions as the economy grew, followed by expansion into new functions (24.4%), and restructuring or development in new business areas (6.2%).
By sector, information & communications (72.8%) continued to have the highest proportion of vacancies for new positions, followed by construction, where newly created positions made up 65.7% of its vacancies in 2023, up from 64.4% in 2022. Food & beverage services (from 49.6% to 57.2%) and retail trade (from 44.9% to 55.6%) also saw higher shares of vacancies for new positions, as firms redesign jobs and adopt new business models to cater to changing consumer patterns.
- Percentage of vacancies unfilled for six months or more has declined over the decade.
In particular, this percentage dropped to 23.5% in 2023, down from 27.1% recorded in 2022, continuing the downtrend from 2013. As shared in the report, the decline over the decade was driven by non-PMET vacancies (from 55.2% in 2013 to 28.5% in 2023), which it noted was a reflection of efforts to alleviate the manpower crunch for non-PMET jobs through technology adoption, job redesign, skills upgrading and higher wages.
- More employers are looking beyond academic qualification when filling PMET roles.
Further pointed out in the report, the share of vacancies for which academic qualification was not the main determinant in hiring continued to rise, from 73.6% in 2022 to 74.9% in 2023. While academic qualifications are still relevant in hiring decisions, the trend suggests an increase in willingness among employers to also consider the relevant experience and skillset of job applicants.
Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng shared in a Facebook post that he is heartened to see that employers are "expressing greater willingness" to consider hiring applicants with the relevant skills and experience, beyond looking at purely academic qualifications.
"We will continue to support employers to upskill and reskill their workers for new roles, as well as to adopt skills-based hiring as our economy continues to evolve with new opportunities."
Patrick Tay, Assistant Secretary-General, National Trades Union Congress, shared a similar sentiment in a Facebook post, saying that soft skills will be the “X factor” in hiring/employment — beyond technical skills and academic qualifications.
He added that the job vacancies report "further reiterates the need for skills training and upgrading to meet the twin challenges of cyclical and structural forces/unemployment besides the advent of new technology/digitalisation/Gen AI."
ASG Tay said: "Employers should continue to support their employees/workers in the skills acquisition and upgrading journey. Workers too need to continue to stay ready, relevant, and resilient...ready with the new skills, relevant to the new/transformed jobs, and resilient to the new changes/curve balls.
"All in all, it is important for Singaporeans to pursue training and upskilling to take on higher value-added roles or pivot to other industries, in order to enhance their career resilience," he added.
Click here to read the full report.
READ MORE: Labour demand cooled over the course of 2023: Singapore's Q4 labour market report
Lead image / MOM Facebook
share on
