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SINGAPORE: The proportion of job vacancies that were for professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) continued to increase last year, amid sustained demand for high-skilled talent in growth sectors. In 2024, 57.7 per cent of job vacancies were for PMETs, up from 57.
2 per cent a year before, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said in its annual job vacancies report on Friday (Mar 28). The sectors that had a higher demand for PMETs were information and communications, financial and insurance services, and professional services. "This trend reflects the positive economic outlook and expanding workforce needs within these sectors," MOM said.
There was also high demand for software, web and multimedia developers and computer network, infrastructure and platform professionals due to the expanding digital economy, the report said. Financial and investment advisers were among the top 10 most sought-after PMET roles. In growth sectors, MOM said resident and non-resident PMET employment rose in tandem, indicating complementarity in the two segments.
NEWLY CREATED POSITIONS The report also found that 45.7 per cent of last year's vacancies were newly created positions, down from 47.3 per cent in 2023.
Despite the slight decline, the large share of newly created positions shows the dynamism of the labour market, said Mr Ang Boon Heng, director of MOM's manpower research and statistics department. Instead of the same positions being filled by different workers, there are structural changes to the jobs and a move toward higher-skilled roles, he said. Of the new positions, 54.
7 per cent were created because of an expansion of existing business functions. Around a third were created because companies were expanding into new functions, and 6.5 per cent were created because jobs were restructured or redesigned.
The sectors that had more vacancies for newly created roles were in information and communications, professional services and financial and insurance services. MOM said that was in line with the overall economic expansion of these sectors. On the other hand, retail trade and food and beverage services had fewer newly created job vacancies.
"This could reflect the sectors' slower business momentum as locals shift their spending to overseas travel destinations," the ministry said. JOB MISMATCHES DECLINE In the past two years, job matching efficiency – which refers to how easily an unemployed person can find employment – has improved, MOM said. Both the unemployment rate and the job vacancy rate have decreased, signalling that the labour market is more efficient at matching workers with available jobs, the report said.
However, MOM's Mr Ang acknowledged that while the macro view captures the experiences of the majority of workers, there will be exceptions. "People on the ground will say that we have a different experience," he said. It is not that the exceptions are not important, but the ministry's report focuses on the broad view, which shows a reduction in structural mismatches.
"It's sort of quite aligned with what we're seeing also in the hard-to-fill vacancies," he said. Vacancies that have been unfilled for at least six months went down from 23.5 per cent in 2023 to 19.
4 per cent last year. In 2014, the figure stood at 41.4 per cent.
Non-PMET vacancies tend to be more difficult to fill, and Mr Ang said some of these jobs have been redeveloped in the last decade or so. The downtrend in hard-to-fill vacancies is a result of the work to redesign roles, he said. "Employers are no longer saying that .
.. people are not taking up a job because of low pay, difficult working conditions," he said.
Technology, foreign manpower, skills upgrading and the Progressive Wage Model have helped to improve hiring outcomes for non-PMET vacancies, MOM said. SHIFT TO SKILLS-BASED HIRING For 78.8 per cent of job vacancies last year, academic qualification was not the main determinant.
That was an increase from 74.9 per cent in 2023. MOM's report said the increase was steeper among PMET vacancies from 2017 to 2024.
Employers typically considered other factors such as relevant experience, skills and abilities. Some employers who did not prioritise academic qualifications in hiring said skills-based hiring led to better outcomes including a faster hiring process, the ability to tap on a broader talent pool and improved employee performance. Given the tightness of the labour market, employers were open to selecting candidates from a wider pool, MOM said.
For 58.1 per cent of vacancies, employers indicated that they were open to hiring candidates with qualifications lower than what was stated in job advertisements. In December last year, there were 1.
64 job vacancies for every unemployed person ..
