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Singaporean jobseekers filled 47,400 positions in April-October
ABOUT 47,400 local jobseekers were placed into jobs from April to October under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, with the healthcare sector seeing the highest number of placements.
Of these job placements, there was a “good mix” of PMET (professional, manager, executive and technician) and non-PMET roles, with six in 10 in long-term positions, based on data from the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) latest jobs situation report released on Thursday.
There are now more than 123,000 available openings for jobseekers, of which 91,300 are in jobs and mostly long-term PMET jobs. This comes as hiring demand in growth sectors picked up and accounted for the majority of available openings, said MOM in the report.
The financial services sector, in particular, has performed well amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with growth in the finance and insurance sector averaging at 4.7 per cent in the first three quarters of the year. The 1,900 jobs that were created in the first half of 2020 all went to locals. As at end-November, there are roughly 5,200 available openings in the financial services sector in Singapore, of which 2,840 are PMET jobs such as compliance, risk management, financial analysis, software development, relationship management and data analysis.
Salaries for common jobs in the sector range from about S$4,850 to S$10,500, depending on the specific role and the candidate’s fit.
While the financial services sector has held steady, disruption in the industry will continue, if not accelerate, amid the growing use of tech and data as well as innovation driving new products and business models, said Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing.
As financial institutions digitalise and transform, there is an urgent need to enhance the local workforce and build up the talent pipeline to meet demand.
“We all need to pivot now and not wait for the pandemic to blow over. Not just the companies that have not done well, or are still suffering from the impact of Covid-19, but also those that have done well, including the financial services sector,” Mr Chan told reporters at a virtual briefing on Thursday.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Institute of Banking and Finance Singapore, for example, are working with businesses to reskill and redeploy workers, whose functions will be affected by the digitalisation shifts, into new or expanded roles. To date, 1,700 workers have completed their training and have been successfully redeployed into new jobs.
In addition to the available openings under the SGUnited jobs initiative, financial institutions in Singapore are also planning to create about 1,800 net jobs from July 2020 to June 2021, according to a pilot survey by MAS.
Overall, the information and communications sector has both the highest number of available job openings as well as company-hosted opportunities and training places. About 13,090 openings are for short and long-term jobs, according to MOM data. These include tech-specialist roles such as software, web and application developments as well as “tech-lite” positions such as customer success manager and digital marketing specialist, which may be suitable for applicants without infocomm technology background or experience, said the ministry.
Source: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/singaporean-jobseekers-filled-47400-positions-in-april-october