27% of job vacancies unfilled for 6 months or more

Some 27 per cent of job vacancies were left unfilled for six months or more, said Manpower Minister Tan See Leng yesterday, underscoring the challenges in matching job seekers with suitable jobs as Singapore transforms its economy.

The ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons reached a high of 1.63 in June this year, said Dr Tan, noting that it represents "very, very high job vacancies relative to unemployed persons".

But many of the openings were in the construction sector, where the shortage has been due to border measures amid the pandemic.

With the labour market in a constant state of dynamic flux and creative tension, said Dr Tan, it would not be possible to match all job vacancies with job seekers perfectly.

"But, if vacancies are accumulating and they are left unfilled, it also indicates that the labour market is having difficulty in accessing and finding the right talent for the vacancies," he added in reply to MPs who asked how the Government is helping workers affected by structural changes like digital disruption.

Ms Hany Soh (Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC), Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang) and Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang) wanted to know how successful career conversion and job matching efforts were, especially for mid-career workers in professional, managerial, executive and technical (PMET) roles.

Some 24 new SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres have been set up in every HDB town, and human resources company Adecco has been appointed as a placement partner to help workers aged 40 and above, as well as those who have been unemployed for a long time and those with disabilities, said Dr Tan.

Close to 44,000 job seekers found jobs through these services by Workforce Singapore (WSG) and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Employment and Employability Institute (e2i).

In all, around 128,000 local job seekers have been placed in jobs and skills opportunities as at end-July this year, with close to six in 10 placements going to mid-career PMET workers.

Dr Tan said WSG saw a large increase in placements through its career conversion programmes, which help workers retrain and switch to new jobs, with more than 14,000 locals supported.

But challenges to filling vacancies remain. For instance, the wage or working conditions are not attractive enough to job seekers. In these cases, businesses may need to redesign work processes, job tasks and responsibilities or even review their strategy, said Dr Tan.

Some other vacancies are persistently unfilled as the employer prefers "plug-and-play" workers who can jump right into the task.

Dr Tan urged such companies to change their mindsets and take a chance with career conversion programmes. Employers which have adopted this approach have found that people recruited through such programmes are a good fit, he said.

About nine in 10 workers placed through these programmes remained employed after 24 months, and about seven in 10 earned more than their last-drawn salaries.

There are also vacancies that are hard to fill because of a shortage of workers with the requisite skills, such as digital competencies.

Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC) and Mr Edward Chia (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) asked how such workers are being retrained and reskilled.

Dr Tan said many jobs now require at least some basic digital literacy skills, and most workers in this category can make the transition seamlessly. He cited programmes like SME Digital Reboot by Ngee Ann Polytechnic and NTUC LearningHub, which work with SMEs to train workers.

For some, the transition may be more complex, in areas such as logistics and manufacturing. WSG has partnered with the Singapore Business Federation to launch the Industry 4.0 Human Capital Initiative to encourage companies in these sectors to trial and adopt Industry 4.0 technologies early, he said. Close to 90 companies have come on board, with another 210 set to do so by September next year.

Unions and employers have also set up over 600 company training committees to drive business and workforce transformation.

There is also growing demand for deep technology skills, said Dr Tan. The Infocomm Media Development Authority's TechSkills Accelerator initiative has placed and trained over 10,000 locals in such tech jobs since 2016, 2,500 of them last year.

These workers have taken on jobs such as systems analysts or data scientists across sectors.

The Government has also set aside close to $10 million to develop jobs transformation maps, detailed sectoral manpower studies that map out the impact of technology and digitalisation on individual jobs over the medium term. Three road maps have been launched for human resources, logistics and financial services, and 12 more maps are in the works, said Dr Tan.

Acknowledging the challenges of workforce transformation, he said a jobs task force set up last month will coordinate efforts across key agencies with the aim of helping local workers take up jobs with good wages and prospects in key sectors, such as financial services and infocomm technology.

"The jobs task force will work closely with tripartite partners and employers to make the labour market function even better," he said.