Singapore - Labour Market Update (December 2020)
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LinkedIn's Economic Graph is a digital representation of the global economy, and insights from the graph provide real-time information on trends that are emerging in the labour market.
There are overall positive signs that Singapore’s economy is recovering. Hiring is on a uptrend, and there is a healthy mix of sectors showing increase in job postings. While it is still early days and there will be a much longer road to full economic recovery, we are optimistic about the promising trends that are emerging, especially if the vaccinations proceed successfully.
Hiring picked up in December
Hiring grew by 10 percentage points across the month, reaching around 20% year-over-year at the end of December.
This analysis looks at the year-on-year changes in hiring rate, which is a measure of hires divided by LinkedIn membership. Note that some of the growth in December is likely a seasonal effect - while December usually has fewer people switching jobs due to holiday plans, the lack of travel in December 2020 meant that people continued to start new jobs during this month.
Share of jobs across sectors
At the sector-level, we see the Finance and Consumer Goods sectors having the largest increase in job posts, while the Recreation & Travel and Energy & Mining sectors continue to show declines. As the country moves to Phase 3 reopening and prepares for the Chinese New Year festivities, it is likely that we will see continued growth in the Consumer Goods sector, although that may still be tempered by economic uncertainties.
This analysis looks at the year-on-year change in the share of jobs posted in each industry as a share of all job postings on LinkedIn for 2019 vs 2020. The changes are expressed as percentage changes.
Job seekers are more likely to apply to jobs in a different industry
We continue to observe that job seekers from badly-affected sectors are looking for jobs in other sectors. In particular, the Construction and Recreation & Travel sectors have shown the largest amount of stress. Interestingly, we also see increased applications out of the Public Administration sector, which is traditionally a safe haven during economic uncertainty. This may reflect a positive turn in local sentiment about the job market
The measure here calculates the likelihood that a member in a certain sector has applied for a job in a sector different to their own.
Jobs On The Rise
In our new Jobs On The Rise report, we see that jobs in the Healthcare sector dominate the list, and also that digital transformation offers a range of opportunities for soft and hard skills. Interestingly, the fastest growing skills among workers in the Healthcare sector include both traditional skills (operations, laboratory, and nursing skills), as well as digital skills (Python, data entry and digital marketing).
Job seekers can use our Career Explorer Tool to identify the skills needed for various jobs, potential career opportunities that they can transit into from their current role, and the new skills they need to acquire in order to make this change. There are also free learning paths for job seekers to learn the skills needed for these jobs. Check out these free resources today!
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