45% of employers believe that skills shortage hinders growth

Almost half of employers in Singapore believe that the shortage of skills could disrupt effectiveness of their business or department, and most would not hesitate to source overseas talent to fill such positions.

According to the 2015 Hays Asia Salary Guide, 45% of the 2,361 employers surveyed believe that skills shortage could hinder the growth of their business.

They not only had difficulty recruiting candidates for senior management roles in functions such as HR, sales and finance, but also found it difficult to fill entry to mid level positions in these areas.

Senior management roles were hardest to fill in the domains of sales, accountancy and finance, and engineering. Sales and engineering roles remained hardest to fill even at the junior-mid management levels, accompanied by IT and operations roles.

One in every 10 employers also expressed difficulty in finding talent to fill their HR vacancies.

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Despite increasing efforts to localise the workforce, 65% of employers would not hesitate to employ or sponsor suitable overseas candidates to fill these shortages.

"This particular finding demonstrates the extent of Singapore’s talent mismatch and the severe shortage of suitably skilled local professionals in many industries and sectors," said Christine Wright, managing director of Hays in Asia.

"This is especially important since 48 per cent of employers told us they expect their permanent staff levels to increase in the year ahead and 72 per cent expect their level of business activity to increase," she added.

These are the key areas of skills shortages being faced by employers in Singapore:

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