Multinationals and SMEs driving up domestic wage inflation: report

Job ads skyrocketed by 59% in Q2.

Multinational firms and and small & medium enterprises are flooding the job market with vacancies. The deluge of available jobs could drive up wage inflation in the country, a report by Robert Walters revealed today.

According to Robert Walters’ Asia Job Index Q2 2014, job advertisements have skyrocketed by 59% in the second quarter, as Singapore continues to remain a top pick for multinationals despite increasing operating costs and competition from other countries in the region.

"Hence, we are likely to see more new-to-market jobs and opportunities driving wage inflation. With the continued flow of multinationals and SMEs setting up Southeast Asian hubs in Singapore, job advertising for accounting and finance as well as HR professionals rose 91% and 80% respectively,” stated the report.

Here’s more from Robert Walters:

With the Fair Consideration Framework gathering pace in Singapore, the demand for local talent rose across industries.However, it remained a candidate-driven market which left positions vacant for extended periods and longer-running job advertisements.

In particular, oil and gas and manufacturing companies remained strong employers as many are attracted to Singapore for its strong infrastructure. To fulfill the market demands for Singaporean talent, we focus heavily on developing the domestic as well as the overseas candidate pool.

IT remained a challenging sector to attract talent, particularly at the junior-level which drove job advertising up by 67% from 2013.