Job vacancies dropped in 2015 as economic woes, restructuring pains bite

Almost half of openings are for PMETs.

The number of job vacancies dropped to 60,000 in September, according to latest data from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

The decline was on back of softer economic conditions and Singapore's ongoing restructuring drive.

However, vacancies still outnumbered jobseekers, with the ratio between the job vacancies and unemployed persons declining to 116 openings per 100 jobhunters in September. This compares with from 121 openings per 100 jobseekers in June and 143 in March.

Four in ten of job vacancies were for professionals, managers, executives and technicians, such as teaching & training professionals, management executives, commercial & marketing sales executives and software, web & multimedia developers. 

Meanwhile, 23% of vacancies were for service and sales workers such as waiters, security guards and shop sales assistants. 

The proportion of vacancies unfilled for at least six months dropped to 39%, from 41% a year ago.

Occupations in higher demand and turnover such as service and sales workers and cleaners, labourers & related workers remained more likely to be hard to fill. 

On the other hand, only about two in every ten PMET openings were unfilled for extended periods.

Employers indicated unattractive pay, long working hours, physically strenuous job nature and shift work as difficulties in recruiting locals to fill non-PMET openings. For PMETs, unattractive pay and the lack of necessary work experience were common reasons for hard-to-fill openings.