Can Singapore deliver the high-calibre skills it needs?

By Chris Mead

Education and labour market flexibility have gone some way to balance Singapore’s labour market but the impact of skills shortages remains acute, so can the city-state deliver the high-skills it needs?

Singapore’s current economic landscape is looking a lot more positive. The global growth outlook is firmer, with Singapore more upbeat.

Yet unemployment is very low and employers continue to struggle to attract highly skilled and experienced professionals.

It is a bitter paradox caused by employers being unable to find the skilled workers they need, particularly in more technical areas such as IT, construction and engineering.

This is emphasised by Singapore’s Global Skills Index score of 4.6, which is indicative of a mixed labour market, where Singapore’s low scores for education and labour market flexibility push down the overall score despite the country’s ongoing and acute shortage of high-skills.

The overall Index score is the average of indicator scores that explore the supply of talent, talent mismatch and wage pressure.

Skills gaps can manifest themselves in any of these three ways, and Singapore is certainly seeing widening pay differential pressure between high-skill and low-skill industries and occupations that is up near the top of the 30 countries included in the Index.

Much like developments in industry pay, Singapore is also seeing a widening gap in pay differences between high-skill and low-skill occupations.

These movements in pay are a local reaction to the skills shortage as employers struggle to recruit staff for roles in high-skill industries and high-skill occupations.

Meanwhile talent mismatch is another area reflective of Singapore’s shortage of high-level skills. The labour that is available lacks the skills employers want. This mismatch between the demand and supply for skills means employers’ expectations for skills and experience are not always being met by the available candidates.

So which skills are in most demand from employers right now? Topping our list would be the following seven skills:

Internal Auditors
Senior Project Managers
Qualified Accountants
Business Development Managers
Cloud Architects/Engineers
Experienced salespeople
Banking professionals

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