JobsDB, one of Singapore’s online job sites, announced an optimistic hiring outlook for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The majority of these companies want to fill entry-level and junior executive roles during the upcoming six months, with a preference for recent graduates and diploma holders.
With more than 300 SMEs participating in the Singapore survey on their hiring plans, the results showed that 70% of those that responded are seeking new staff. On the other hand only 10% have decided to do no hiring, while just 20% have no plans.
Fresh Graduates Can Expect to Enter Healthy Job Market in Singapore
Of those companies looking to hire, 83% of SMEs are going to hire junior executives, while 58% indicated they wanted to fill entry level positions.
Senior executives came in third with 40% looking to hire for these positions, managers had 24% and senior management was the lowest at 11%.
New university graduates and diploma holders are facing extra favorable hiring circumstances with 66% and 75% of the surveyed SMEs seeking these candidates respectively.
SMEs Aim to Hire Locals
Nearly half of the SMEs in the survey (48%) reported that they were uncertain about hiring foreigners and just 24% were open to the idea.
Government initiatives like the Fair Consideration Framework are also influencing SMEs to compete for domestic talent. The positions that SMEs are most eager to fill are sales (40%), office support/administration (31%), engineering, accounting (19%), and IT (18%).
While there is a pool of talented candidates domestically, their pay expectations might be too high for the reality of what SMEs can afford, Sales director of Kuisine Catering Mr. Don Tock said.
The recent announcement of the SkillsFuture initiative which will offer Singaporean individuals access to continuing education opportunities and grants, will help SMEs because the labor force will continue to get more skilled.
The SkillsFuture initiative can help the domestic workforce improve and increase local talent. SMEs and other local Singaporean businesses will be able to gain access to local talent, train them, and then retain them as their businesses continue to grow, Sheldon Fernandez jobsDB Singapore’s Managing Director said.