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Hospitality, IT and telecoms continue to rise in Singapore

Singapore has hit somewhat of a snag in its economy and job market. However there are some positives to see behind the clouds as Today Online points out.

While there has been a decline in online job ads for banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), hiring is on the up and up in hospitality, telecommunications and IT.

In research released by the Monster Employment Index (MEI), online job ads were examined alongside recording information on the sectors that had the highest and lowest growth in recruitment.

BFSI saw the smallest growth, with job ads from this sector falling 5% on last year. The real estate industry also suffered, with jobs reaching a negative 24% growth.

Elsewhere, human resources, administrative, finance and accounting have also seen a 5% fall. This is mainly due to banking positions being outsourced to India and, while this may be a negative for ASEAN graduates, it is good news for Indian graduates.

But it’s not all bleak – software, hardware and telecommunications all saw a 16% increase in job postings, the biggest since January last year. Moreover, this group leads for the third month running, which coincides with other trends we have previously spoken about in Singapore.

IT and telecommunications witnessed a mini boom, as did IT-enabled services, with these sectors seeing a 14% surge in annual growth. This is an encouraging figure, once again achieving the highest industry score measured by the index.

Coming in a close second we have the hospitality sector. Achieving a 13% increase, it even beat the government, public sector enterprise and defence sector (7%) as well as the education sector (7%).

Sanjay Modi, managing director of Monster.com for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, stated that “Singapore’s economy is still seeing the effects of the global financial crisis” which has been reflected in the “slowed-down hiring activities” across all sectors.

However, he further commented that while particular jobs in manufacturing and BFSI may not show strong growth in the coming months, he does expect to see an increase in demand for tech professionals in fields such as life sciences, media and entertainment, logistics and retail.

This faith is reiterated by an employee in the telecoms sector, known as Daniel, a 36-year-old product manager who commented that his company “is still actively hiring and there isn’t a freeze on any headcount. There is still an increasing demand for services, and products of our nature, so we will still need people to be there to sell and promote.”

Economies always ebb and flow and with each falling sector, another one rises. IT and telecoms are predicted to be huge industries in the coming years across ASEAN, which means that now is the perfect time to kick start your career. So if you want to get ahead of the game and see the best in vacancies in your chosen sector, check out GradLink's job page today.