More than half of employers struggle to fill in positions

The jobs that are hardest to fill are sales representatives, engineers, and drivers.

The level of hiring difficulty in Singapore hit a 10-year high as 56% of employers are struggling to fill in some positions. The demand for sales representatives, engineers, and drivers are the highest, a ManpowerGroup survey found.

According to the study, most of the jobs where demand is growing are mid-skilled roles that are not necessarily needing a full university degree but require post-secondary training.

It also reported that the rise of consumerism fueled the demand for drivers due to increasing online retail trade, logistics and last-mile delivery.

“The increasing prevalence of e-commerce in Singapore has driven up demand for drivers and customer service professionals to address companies’ rapidly growing logistics and last-mile delivery needs,” ManpowerGroup Singapore country manager Linda Teo commented.

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Teo cited that companies including Grab and foodpanda that provide transportation and delivery services also contributed to the growing demand.

Also in the list of in-demand jobs are professionals consisting of project managers, lawyers, and researchers (4th), technicians (5th), and those working in the skilled trade including electricians, welders, and mechanics (6th). Employers from sectors including accounting and finance, information technology (IT), manufacturing, and customer support are also having difficulty in filling in positions.

One in three employers believe that the top reason of the difficulty in filling roles is because of the candidates’ lack of necessary experience. Others said that applicants expect higher wage than offered (27%) whilst some believe its the lack of applicants itself (22%).

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“Whilst artificial intelligence is fast-expanding what can be automated, technology is redefining rather than replacing in-demand roles,” Teo said.

Amongst respondents, 13% of employers think that job hunters lack either the hard skills or human strengths that they need to get hired.

The survey studied the responses of 360 Singapore employers regarding talent shortage.