Job Vacancies 2023

Overview

1. The labour market has remained tight, as vacancies continue to outnumber jobseekers.¹ Among this pool of vacancies, newly created positions saw an increase in 2023, with the majority arising from business expansion and restructuring. Employers also expressed greater willingness to consider applicants’ relevant experience and skillsets, besides academic qualifications. The proportion of vacancies for Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs) rose further in 2023, mainly in sectors such as Information & Communications, Financial & Insurance Services, Professional Services, and Health & Social Services. Jobs with a technology focus remained in demand despite the restructuring and layoffs in tech firms. There was also demand for business development and healthcare professionals. Due to the strong demand for these workers, employers were willing to pay more to fill these positions, compared to the year before.

Main Findings

The share of newly created positions among all vacancies rose

2. The proportion of newly created positions rose from 38.7% in 2022 to 47.3% in 2023, the highest since the series started in 2018. The majority of these newly created positions arose due to business expansion into existing and new functions. This reflects the evolving nature of our economy and the accompanying changes in manpower demand.

PMET share of job vacancies rose in 2023

3. The proportion of PMET vacancies continued to rise to 57.2% in 2023, up from 56.0% in 2022 and 39.2% in 2013. The steady increase in PMET share of job vacancies over the decade was a result of the higher demand for skilled workers, particularly in sectors such as Information & Communications, Financial & Insurance Services, Professional Services and Health & Social Services.

4. Jobs with a technology focus remained strong in 2023. Similar to 2022, software, web & multimedia developers continued to rank at the top of all PMET vacancies in 2023. Job vacancies for system analysts also remained within the top ten PMET vacancies. Job openings for business development and sales professionals rose as establishments sought to expand their businesses and improve the efficiency of their processes. The demand for registered nurses and enrolled nurses has also remained strong as the healthcare sector continued to expand. Employers were willing to pay more to fill these positions, compared to the year before.

More employers are looking beyond academic qualifications when filling PMET vacancies

5. The proportion of vacancies where academic qualifications were not the main determinant in hiring continued to rise to 74.9% in 2023, from 73.6% in 2022 and 67.1% in 2017². 68.3% of employers also indicated they were open to hire candidates with qualifications lower than what was required for the position, if the applicants possess relevant work experience, skills, or attitude. This suggests that while academic qualifications are still relevant in hiring decisions, there is an increased willingness among employers to also consider applicants’ relevant experience and skillsets.

Percentage of vacancies unfilled for six months or more has declined

6. The proportion of job vacancies unfilled for at least six months declined in 2023 (23.5%), compared to 2022 (27.1%). The decline over the decade (2013: 40.3%) was driven by non-PMET vacancies, reflecting success in the efforts to alleviate the manpower crunch for non-PMET jobs through access to foreign manpower, technology adoption, job redesign, skills upgrading as well as efforts to raise wages through the Progressive Wage Model.

7. Non-PMET jobs such as supervisors in building & related trades and shop sales assistants had a higher share of vacancies that were less difficult to fill. PMET vacancies with less difficulty in filling includes management executives for non-specialised duties; operations research analyst; and administration managers.

Conclusion

8. The rise in the newly created positions among job vacancies reflects the evolving nature of our economy and new opportunities. Employees will need to continue to upskill and reskill so that they can take on the new positions that came about from business expansion. The Government will support companies to upskill and reskill their workers for new roles:

1. Employers can tap on WSG’s Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs) which provide up to 90% salary support to employers to train new hires or existing workers for new or enhanced job roles. From 1 April 2024 onwards, the salary support caps for CCPs will be increased to $7,500 for mature or long-term unemployed workers and $5,000 for workers. Employers can receive up to $45,000 for each CCP trainee for a typical six-month programme. In addition, the eligibility criteria for existing employees will be expanded beyond employees in at-risk roles to cover all employees who are being reskilled to take on growth jobs. Employers can also receive a 20% course fee subsidy top-up from SSG’s SkillsFuture Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy for mature workers, or from SSG’s Enhanced Training Support for SMEs for SME-sponsored workers.
2. Employers can make use of the Jobs Transformation Maps (JTMs) to understand how their businesses and job demands may change in response to sectoral trends, as well as how to redesign jobs and reskill workers for new jobs. A total of 16 JTMs have been completed, and the Government will progressively launch 4 more in new growth areas such as Generative AI and Sustainable Finance.

9. Employers who are more flexible and open to wider talent pool are more successful in filling their vacancies. As a result, the proportion of vacancies that are harder to fill has continued to trend down. We encourage more employers to adopt skills-based hiring and tap into transferable skills and experiences. Employers can ensure that their HR professionals are equipped to do so by encouraging them to take the certification by the Institute for Human Resource Professionals (IHRP). IHRP certified professionals will be able to tap on curated HR resources, keep abreast of latest manpower policies and learn from strong expertise in the certified community. Jobseekers can make use of the CareersFinder feature on Workforce Singapore’s (WSG’s) MyCareersFuture job portal, which harnesses data and AI to help Singaporeans to explore pathways to acquiring new skills and reach their career goals.

10. Employers with hard-to-fill vacancies are encouraged to improve the attractiveness of their jobs so that they can tap on a larger talent pool to fill vacancies. Employers can tap on the Support for Job Redesign under Productivity Solutions Grant to transform these jobs so that they can be of higher value to businesses, while simultaneously maintaining attractiveness to resident jobseekers when pay and work conditions improve. They can also implement Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) such as flexi-hours and telecommuting can support workers who may be otherwise unable to take on a job due to personal demands such as caregiving. The tripartite partners will be releasing the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests later this year to further promote the adoption of FWAs at the workplace and help employers access more talent.

For More Information

11. The “Job Vacancies 2023” report is released by the Manpower Research and Statistics Department, Ministry of Manpower. The full report and technical notes on the various indicators are available at stats.mom.gov.sg.