Where do you find official key trends and developments in Singapore's financial sector workforce?

Want to learn about the opportunities relating to jobs and skills in Singapore's financial sector?

How is Singapore transforming its financial sector workforce to be among the best globally?

This is where you will be able to find official key trends and developments in the financial sector workforce in Singapore: the Growing Timber Series

Through the Growing Timber series, MAS, together with the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF), will share key trends and developments in the financial sector workforce, so that as an industry we know where we are doing well and where we need to do better together, and engender conversations and partnerships on developing our local workforce even as we remain open to complementary expertise and skills from abroad.

“Growing timber is a long-term commitment. So is the jobs and skills effort - creating job opportunities, fostering job readiness, and supporting job retention. The efforts take time to bear fruit. But with persistence and an enterprising spirit, we will create a lush forest: a world-class financial sector workforce ready for the future.”

Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director, MAS, and Chairman, IBF at “Growing Timber” MAS-IBF Webinar Series on 26 November 2020

A Tech-Enabled Financial Sector – Is Our Workforce Ready?

At the "A Tech-Enabled Financial Sector – Is Our Workforce Ready?" webinar earlier this month, there were lots of insights from Mr Ravi Menon's remarks.

Here are some highlights if you would like a quick view of the opportunities available:

1) Financial institutions are offering 6,500 newly created positions in 2021

About 6,000 of the newly created positions are permanent jobs. Half of these jobs are in technology and consumer banking, with the remaining jobs spread across other business lines and functions.

This continues the trend of job growth in the financial sector that has been consistently strong over the past 5 years. A total of 21,000 net jobs were created during 2016-2020, with Singaporeans taking up about 16,000 or about 75% of these jobs.

2) Opportunities in non-tech roles

Good news for non-techies. There is strong demand for non-tech roles, with close to 4,800 hiring opportunities. These include roles in relationship management, product sales, compliance and risk management.

Relationship managers alone account for 1,300 or 28% of the hiring opportunities in non-tech roles. The demand for financial planners and relationship managers is likely to be sustained.

"Financial planning and relationship management is not an easy job, but it is meaningful."

3) Technology Jobs in Financial Sector

Technology has become central to how financial services are produced, distributed, and consumed.

The Singapore financial sector has harnessed technology across a wide range of functions – from risk management, business analytics to customer service. Singapore is now among the most tech-enabled financial centres in the world, supported by a vibrant FinTech ecosystem and strong foundational digital infrastructures.

The surge in demand for technology jobs has benefitted Singaporean workers. The share of Singaporeans in tech jobs has remained stable at about 35% over the years. But with the rapid expansion of the technology workforce, it meant 2,200 more tech jobs for Singaporeans. This is a more than 30% increase in 5 years, from 6,700 jobs in 2014 to 8,900 jobs in 2019.

The strongest demand - and biggest shortage in local skills - is for software engineers.

In 2019, net job growth in software engineers was 200, 10 times more than that for UX/UI designers. Less than 20% of these 200 software engineer jobs went to Singaporeans. These jobs require strong programming skills and in-depth business domain and system knowledge. There are not enough Singaporeans applying for these jobs in the first place, let alone qualifying for them.

4) Skils, Skills, Skills

Singapore's financial sector has shown that technology creates far more jobs than it displaces. During the last 5 years, the financial sector created 21,000 net jobs. It is estimated that about 1 out of 4 of these net jobs were in technology. While Singaporeans took up 75% of the total net jobs, they accounted for only 35% of the tech jobs.

There are simply not enough Singaporeans applying for tech roles.

The problem is not jobs; it is skills.

The answer does not lie in restricting the inflow of foreign tech expertise. 

The answer lies in individuals, financial institutions, and MAS working together to build strong skills in technology.

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* Info and visuals from Mr Ravi Menon's remarks. Read his full speech and find out more about the Growing Timber Series.

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