Despite layoffs from big tech companies making the headlines, there is still a high number of job vacancies for tech talent, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Thursday (Mar 30).
“The recent news of retrenchments by the big tech companies has caused some concern … however, in our survey, we found that technology talents continue to be sought after,” said Mr Ang Boon Heng, director of MOM’s research and statistics department.
“Employers on average are also willing to pay more for these positions due to the shortage of such specialised skills.”
While tech jobs continue to rank among the top 10 vacancies in MOM’s annual Job Vacancies Report for 2022, the job with the most number of vacancies was management executive, overtaking software web & multimedia developer, which was the top job vacancy in 2021.
An MOM spokesperson said that the majority of the vacancies for management executives in this survey were mainly in public administration and education.
For non-PMETs, the top job in demand continued to be construction labourer. This was followed by general office clerk.
In all, the number of job vacancies declined for the third consecutive quarter in December 2022 to 104,500, said MOM. But the level remains elevated compared with 51,100 in December 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
MOM expects job vacancies to moderate with hiring sentiments remaining positive and global economic headwinds weighing on labour demand going forward.
While the total number of job vacancies rose in 2022, the proportion of vacancies unfilled for at least six months declined from 35 percent in 2021 to 27 percent in 2022.
