Job market outlook for Singapore in 2018

JobTech has recently released its Online Jobs Census, showing that Singapore is still at the onset of the next wave of digitisation and there will be an increasing need for more technical talents in both the local and regional markets. Skills clusters that will help jobseekers build a competitive edge include technical troubleshooting; software engineering; quality auditing; data analysis and hardware configuration. These clusters of skills also recorded considerable percentages of the total demand from local employers in 2017.

Possessing a set of versatile and transferable soft skills can also prove to be advantageous. Soft skills such as effective communication; meticulousness; being both a team player and independent at work; analytical in problem solving and good public presentation skills have also been top on the list of job requirements across all sectors in 2017.

Although the healthcare sector posted the most number of jobs for 4Q2017 across the recovery sectors, banking and finance showed the highest growth rate with approximately 700 more jobs YoY. This is equivalent to more than 35% YoY growth for the sector. Export-driven sectors such as logistics, and retail and wholesale are also experiencing an advance uplift in 4Q2017 due to better global economic outlook for 2018. Outperforming the same period a year ago, these sectors saw an increase of 28% (logistics) and 11% (retail and wholesale) online jobs.

In terms of the number of online jobs, the electronics and semiconductor sector continues to decline in 4Q2017 after its fall in online job counts a quarter ago. The sector's smaller hiring appetite in 4Q2017 has reduced its hiring level back to 2.5% below that of 4Q2016, making the last quarter of 2017 the second consecutive quarter of negative growth for the electronics and semiconductor sector.

For sectors such as marine and offshore, tourism and hospitality, and construction; their YoY online jobs growth rates in 4Q2017 were also recorded to be significantly lower than the market average.

In 2017, the employment demand from the 5 growth sectors: finance; professional services; communications and information; wholesale trade; and healthcare, supported by the Ministerial Workgroup launched in July 2017, have grown faster than the overall job market.

Lead Photo /JobTech

Tables /JobTech