SINGAPORE: After six straight quarters of declines, the number of job vacancies rebounded, with fewer employers having as much difficulty filling these positions, the latest job vacancies report released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) shows.
According to details, of the 53,800 openings as at September last year, about half (48 per cent) were for professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMET). One in five of these vacancies persisted for at least six months.
Amid a slower economy and efforts to restructure the economy to be leaner on manpower, the number of vacancies has been on a broad downtrend in the last two years — falling steadily from the 65,700 in December 2014, on a seasonally adjusted basis.
The MOM said the increase in PMET vacancies — from 39 per cent in 2013 to 48 per cent in 2016 — was mainly in financial and insurance services, professional services, and information and communications. In terms of jobs, teaching and training professionals (2,100), management executives (1,210), software, web and multimedia developers (1,150), registered nurses and enrolled/assistant nurses (1,060) were the most sought after, as with recent years.
As for non-PMET openings, accommodation and food services, administrative and support services, and wholesale and retail trade accounted for the bulk. The people most in demand were service and sales workers (11,840) such as shop sales assistants (2,720), security guards (2,280) and waiters (1,290).
The MOM said the lack of qualified candidates could explain why some PMET openings were hard to fill. As for non-PMET vacancies, it could be because of undesirable job-specific conditions, in terms of pay, a long workweek and shift work.
