Over 4,600 start-up jobs offered under SGUnited Jobs and Skills programmes
SINGAPORE — More than 4,600 jobs, as well as 860 traineeships and attachments, have been offered to local jobseekers by over 1,600 start-up companies under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills programmes.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in its weekly jobs situation report on Thursday (20 August) that these jobs include unconventional roles such as gallery manager executive, commercial intelligence associate and animator.
There are also tech-related roles such as software developers and app developers, and non-tech roles like sous chefs, business development leads and digital content producers.
The top five start-up job roles pay a median monthly salary of between $2,700 (for administrative and related associated officials) and $6,000 (for software developers).
Between April and June this year, around 330 jobseekers have joined the start-ups with support from the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. About half were mid-career individuals who took part in Professional Conversion Programmes.
Companies hosting SGUnited Traineeships have started to take in trainees in June. About 150 fresh and recent graduates have since entered the startup scene through the programme.
“While the job roles and sectors are not always familiar, we are encouraged by the jobseekers who have kept an open mind. The government will also provide support to businesses, both established and new, to build a strong Singaporean core as they expand,” MOM said in the report.
Over 6,000 employers submitted cost-saving measures
MOM also revealed that, as at end-July, about 6,300 employers have submitted notifications on cost-saving measures to the ministry, affecting some 224,800 employees, both local and foreign.
These measures are recommended alternatives to retrenchments, which should be the last resort for employers. They include: adjustments to monthly salary components, no-pay leave and shorter work week.
Local employees make up slightly less than half of all employees affected by cost-saving measures.
About half of affected workers are from three sectors – accommodation and food services, construction, wholesale and retail trade.
The volume of notifications peaked during the COVID-19 circuit breaker period in April and May, with about 2,000 employers notifying the ministry in those two months.
Since then, it has fallen to about 600 notifications in July, and MOM said that this suggests that companies were making concerted efforts to hold back retrenchments.
Outreach efforts intensified to help jobseekers
With the job situation in Singapore slow to recover due to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) has intensified its outreach efforts to help jobseekers navigate job opportunities.
In July, it organised 22 outreach and engagement activities across Singapore, reaching more than 2,800 jobseekers. These events, which are on top of the Workforce Singapore’s (WSG) outreach events, include SGUnited Job Interviews for roles in areas such as healthcare, community care, technology, as well as virtual career workshops on topics such as salary negotiations, practical job search tips and networking skills.
Together, NTUC’s e2i and WSG have reached more than 16,000 jobseekers in July 2020.
Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat also announced on Monday that the Singapore government will set aside $1 billion for the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) scheme, to provide support to employers that are able to grow their local headcounts over the next six months.
For each new local hire in eligible growth enterprises, the Government will provide wage support for up to 12 months, with higher support for new local hires aged 40 and above.
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