In its First Quarter 2022 Labour Market Advance Release, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) shared that total employment continued to expand, with about 41,100 new jobs added in 1Q2022. Singapore’s Citizen unemployment as of March 2022 is at 3.2%, which is at our pre-COVID-19 level and a strong improvement from the 5.0% that we experienced in October 2020.
For Singapore workers who are looking for work, or contemplating a career/job change, it’s worth noting that about 67.6% of companies have indicated plans to hire as of March 2022. Not surprisingly, this is a significant improvement compared to the 52.2% in June 2020, when our country had just exited from the initial circuit breaker.
Source: MOM
If you are looking for a job, knowing where the job opportunities make sense. Earlier this week, MOM released data on where the top job openings are.
Community, Social & Personal Services Has The Highest Number Of Job Vacancies
Across all industries, the Community Social & Personal Services account for the highest number of job vacancies at 21.8%. Within the industry, jobs in need of workers include Teaching and Training professionals (850), Management Executives (within the industry – 660), Receptionists, Customer Service & Information Clerks (580) and Registered Nurses & Other Nursing Professionals (570). Jobs such as Pre-Primary Education Teachers (450) and Healthcare Assistants (430) also fall within the industry.
Ironically, when we look at the minimum qualifications required for many of these jobs, a degree is often not needed. For example, only a Diploma or professional qualification is needed for many of the Pre-Primary Education Teacher and Teaching & Training Professional roles available. For jobs like Healthcare Assistant and Receptionist, Customer Service & Information Clerk, only require a post-secondary (non-tertiary) education may be required.
Construction & Manufacturing Sector Are (Always) Hiring
It’s an open secret by now that both the construction (10.5% of job vacancies) and manufacturing industries (13.4% of job vacancies) are sectors that are perpetually looking for workers.
Among job vacancies across all industries, it’s no surprise that Construction Labourer (3,300) tops the chart by a considerable margin. While we can expect the shortage of construction workers to ease off with the opening of Singapore borders, this highlights a longstanding problem in Singapore – we love buying properties but don’t have enough people building them.
Top job vacancies in the manufacturing industry include Electrical & Electronic Equipment Assemblers (800), Industrial & Production Engineers (620) and Manufacturing Engineering Technicians (590).
Shortage Of Workers In Accommodation & Food Service (7.2% of Job Vacancies), Wholesale & Retail Trade (11.0% of Job Vacancies)
As we start dining out in larger groups, you may have noticed that securing reservations at restaurants seems to be harder than before. And when you reach the restaurants, you may realised they are not even utilising all the tables that they have.
The reason for this could be due to staff shortage. Within the Accommodation & Food Service Industries, Waiters are the top job vacancies (1,130), ahead of Kitchen Assistants (630), Cooks (410) and Chefs (300).
And as more people filled up the malls, Shop Sales Assistants (2,080) are in high demand again.
Software, Web & Multimedia Developer Has The Highest Number Of Job Vacancies Among White-Collar Jobs
While most of the vacancies that we have discussed are blue-collar roles that do not require a degree qualification, there are also white-collar jobs with high vacancies.
This is led by Software, Web & Multimedia Developers (1,320) and Management & Business Consultants (790). Given that these are roles that pay well, usually require a degree qualification and are highly sought after by Singapore graduates, it could suggest that while Singapore workers are keen on these jobs, companies are still having a hard time filling these roles.
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