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More than one-third of job vacancies in 2018 unfilled for 6 months or more

FILE PHOTO: Yahoo News Singapore
FILE PHOTO: Yahoo News Singapore

Despite more than 60,000 job vacancies available in Singapore in 2018, 34 per cent of them remained unfilled for six months or more, according to a report released on Tuesday (19 March) by the Manpower Research and Statistics Department of the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

The percentage was just slightly worse than the 2017 figure of 33 per cent.

For such unfilled job vacancies, non-PMET (Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians) openings remained harder to fill than PMET ones.

The main reasons cited by employers include unattractive pay, physically-strenuous job nature, work on weekends/public holidays and shift work. On the other hand, the top reason that they cited for PMET vacancies that were hard to fill by locals was the lack of candidates with the necessary specialised skills or work experience.

SOURCE: Ministry of Manpower
SOURCE: Ministry of Manpower

The report is based on the department’s job vacancies survey conducted from 27 September to 7 December last year. The survey, which was conducted via mail questionnaires, covered private sector establishments each with at least 25 employees and the public sector comprising government ministries, organs of state and statutory boards. A total of 15,900 establishments employing 2,110,400 employees responded.

Four in 10 vacancies were for new positions

Last year, about four in 10 job vacancies (42 per cent) were for new positions created as a result of business formation and expansion. These vacancies were commonly from community, social and personal services (education, healthcare), manufacturing (electronics, transport equipment) as well as information and communications.

Employers were increasingly going beyond academic qualifications when hiring. The proportion of PMET vacancies where academic qualification was not a main consideration increased from 42 per cent in 2017 to 52 per cent in 2018. For these positions (including software, web and multimedia developers, systems analysts and commercial and marketing sales executives), employers placed stronger emphasis on skills or relevant working experience instead.

“For workers looking to enter the labour market or switch careers, common jobs which do not require prior sector or job specific working experience included teaching/training professionals, nurses, and receptionists/customer service officers,” the report said.

Sought-after PMET and non-PMET positions

The most sought-after PMET positions included software/web/multimedia developers, systems analysts, and commercial/marketing sales executives. There was also an emerging demand for technical and analytical roles, such as chief information officers, compliance officers or risk analysts and database designers/administrators.

For non-PMET positions, while vacancies for cleaners, shop sales assistants and security guards ranked at the top, the demand for these jobs has declined with ongoing industry transformation efforts. On the other hand, healthcare assistants saw an increase in vacancies, amid rising healthcare demand.

The report encourages employers to continue to look beyond the academic qualifications of potential candidates, so that they can tap on a wider workforce.

For jobs that are less attractive to local job seekers, employers can take advantage of technology to improve their job quality, with technology adoption schemes such as the Lean Enterprise Development Scheme and the Capability Transfer Programme.

For non-PMET job openings which tend to be harder to fill, employers are also encouraged to improve job quality through job redesign and salary review to make them more attractive to Singaporeans.

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