SINGAPORE (Dec 10): Jobseekers have cause for celebration as the hiring pace in Singapore is expected to pick up in the first three months of 2020. This was reflected in the results of the Employment Outlook Survey released on Tuesday by ManpowerGroup, a global recruitment firm.
Of the 630 employers surveyed, 13% are looking at higher payrolls next year. 5% forecast a decrease while 79% expect things to remain at status quo. This translates into a net employment outlook of +9% for 1Q2020 – 5 percentage points more than that for the current quarter ending December 2019.
The employers surveyed come from different sectors, such as finance, insurance and real estate, manufacturing, mining and construction, public admin and education, services, transportation and utilities as well as wholesale and retail trade.
On a sectoral basis, the public admin and education sector is most optimistic with a net employment outlook of +22%. The finance, insurance and real estate sector followed suit with its projected outlook of +15%, while the mining and construction sector anticipates an outlook of +12%.
Meanwhile, modest hiring activity is expected in the manufacturing (+3%), services (+8%) and wholesale and retail trade (+6%) sectors. This comes as these sectors have been hit by lower activity on the back of the US-China trade war that has caused a global slowdown.
Year-on-year, there has been an improvement in Singapore’s job market outlook as employers in five of the seven sectors indicate plans to rev up hiring in the coming months. The only two sectors that recorded slower employment are the manufacturing and services sectors – both of which have been logging negative growth this year.
Large businesses with more than 250 employees are also most optimistic, forecasting a +26% in their hiring outlook. Small and medium employers are looking at an employment outlook of +18% and +11% respectively, while micro employers with fewer than 10 employees expect a modest +2% in their hiring outlook.
The latest results show Singapore’s job market prospects are moderate relative to the six other Asia Pacific markets surveyed. Japan and Taiwan took the lead with employers logging net employment outlooks of +25% and +23%. India and Australia too recorded an outlook of +11% each.
Interestingly, employers in China and Hong Kong predict a positive employment outlook of +6% and +11% respectively, in spite of the former facing trade issues with the US and the latter having domestic unrest.
Aside from Asia-Pacific, countries from the Americas and Europe, Middle East and Africa are positive in their hiring outlook for the upcoming quarter. Specifically, the US is looking at a hiring outlook of +19% while the UK expects +2% .
“While employers are cautiously optimistic in their hiring plans for the upcoming quarter, they will adjust their hiring plans in reaction to changing market conditions,” notes Linda Teo, Singapore Country Manager at ManpowerGroup. She adds that the labour market is highly volatile, as employers’ hiring decisions are dependent on prevailing market conditions.
Even so, Teo observes that “more companies are investing in employee training to plug the skills gap in their [industries]”. Such behaviour arises from a need to ensure there is sufficient manpower to meet expected increases in demand, she points out.
