Narrowed skills gap eases Singapore’s labour market pressure: Hays

• Oct 12, 2017

LABOUR market pressure in Singapore has eased over the past year thanks to a narrower skills gap, according to a global skills survey by recruitment firm Hays.

Singapore’s Global Skills Index score declined to 4.3 out of 10 in 2017 from 4.7 in 2016 and 2015, suggesting that companies in the country are having an easier time finding and retaining workers. A score above 5.0 indicates that the labour market is “tighter” than normal.

Contributing to a decrease in Singapore’s score this year was the “talent mismatch” indicator, which is now 5.9 from 6.1 last year. It helped Singapore to achieve the second-lowest score in the region, alongside Hong Kong. China currently has the lowest score at 4.0, with Japan the highest at 5.7.

Done in collaboration with Oxford Economics, the Hays Global Skills Index is an assessment of the trends impacting skilled labour markets, and determines how easy or difficult it is for organisations to find the skilled professionals they need.

Managing director of Hays Singapore, Lynne Roeder said: “Organisations will need to get better at aligning talent with opportunity… They will need to look differently at how they source talent whether that’s investment in new technology or introduce measures that sees current and potential employees undergo ‘upskilling’ where appropriate to ensure they also can adapt to meet new challenges.”

Source: http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/narrowed-skills-gap-eases-singapores-labour-market-pressure-hays