Almost half of the job openings in 2020 were newly created positions, suggesting that the pace of business transformation and restructuring was sustained despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Ministry of Manpower Job Vacancies Report 2020, newly created jobs made up 45 per cent of all job openings last year, an increase compared to the past two years.
These vacancies have opened because of business expansion, restructuring and job redesign coupled with government initiatives aimed at business transformation, according to the report.
Manpower Minister Josephine Teo observed that the increase in job openings also pointed to possible hiring challenges faced by companies last year.
“With newly created positions, employers naturally look for new skills which are usually not those that their workers already have. If many employers are looking for the same new skills, then it stands to reason that these employers will find it quite difficult to fill those vacancies,” said Mrs Teo at a visit to food manufacturing company Eurasia on 8 April 2021.
In 2020, 27 per cent of job vacancies went unfilled for six months or more. The number was down slightly from 2019.
Commenting on the downward trend, Mrs Teo said: “This means that the job market has a certain level of efficiency, and we are able to match employers and jobseekers. It also shows that the programmes we put in place have helped reduce the number of vacancies that remain unfilled for a long time.”
According to MOM, the challenges faced by employers when filling PMET and non-PMET vacancies were different. For PMET vacancies, employers commonly cited the lack of necessary skills and work experience. On the other hand, jobseekers for non-PMET positions may be deterred by the work environment, physical demands, and shift work.
Mrs Teo urged jobseekers to be willing to reskill, and for employers to redesign non-PMET roles and to train their existing staff to turn the hiring challenges into opportunities.
The report also said that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the pace of digital transformation, resulting in firm demand for ICT professionals. IT development roles such as software, web and multimedia developers and systems analysts were the most sought-after last year. The demand for such roles has risen in the last five years.
MOM also believes that there will be an increase in demand for workers in the healthcare sector.
Commenting on the report on his Facebook, NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Desmond Choo said: “All in all, good jobs are being created in sunrise sectors, while evergreen sectors like healthcare continue to expand with growing healthcare needs. It is also encouraging to note that employers are increasingly looking beyond academic qualifications, towards applicants having the right skills and attitude for the job.”
As unemployment rates continued to fall since September 2020, Mr Choo said that he was “cautiously optimistic that this trend of decreasing unemployment will continue, although it may naturally be harder to sustain the same rate with every dip in unemployment.”
He urged all workers to continue to keep an open mind about learning new skills, taking on new roles, or switching to other industries that are hiring.
Mr Choo added that NTUC will continue to help workers seize opportunities and place at-risk workers into jobs through initiatives such as the NTUC Job Security Council.
