Start 2021 Right With These Industries That Have High Job Vacancies

With Phase 3 and the vaccination programme rolled out since the end of 2020, the pandemic situation for the coming year looks less hazy. Indeed, based on the report from the Ministry of Manpower released on 17 Dec 2020, the job market situation had improved back in Sep 2020. 

As all indicators point to an improving situation, it might be worth extrapolating the information released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on 17 Dec to predict the job market in 2021. Whether you want assurance that the industry you are in is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel or you are exploring new fields to venture into, these are the industries worth a second look as our economy emerges from the bleak.

Editor’s Note: You can skip the technical description by clicking on the hyperlinks below to read the in-demand jobs list.

• Overview of The Job Vacancies, by Industries
• Top 10 Industries by Job Vacancies (In Thousands)
• Top 10 Industries by Job Vacancy Rate (In %)
• Top 10 Industries by Job Vacancy (Aggregated) 

Data Source

First, I used the statistical table released by the MOM on 17 December related to Job Vacancies. Yes, instead of employment rate, it is more useful to look at vacancies. By looking at the data, we can find out which industries or sectors are looking to employ more people.

The data from MOM could be quite harrowing at first sight. With 45 rows and 77 columns of data, it was not for those who gets dizzy from looking at a wall of numbers. 

Number of Job Vacancies and Job Vacancy Rate

The data was also separated into “absolute numbers” and “rate”. In other words, a certain industry may have 10,000 job vacancies, which may look huge in absolute numbers. However, the total number of people employed could be 1 million, making the job vacancy rate just 1%.

A higher rate reflects the willingness of employers to fill in the job vacancies. Imagine yourself as an employer having to fill 8 out of 10 jobs vs 1 out of 10 jobs. Even though the employer of the latter still has 1 more position to fill, he is less motivated to do so, since he can afford to “wait for the right staff” by geting the other staff to cover that position. 

Therefore, after showing the top 10 industries by number of job vacancies and job vacancy rate, I also created an aggregated list to provide a more well-rounded picture.

Sectors and Sub-sectors

On another hand, the source table tried to put overlapping layers of data into a single table. Sub-sectors were placed immediately after the main industries. Though it was not difficult to separate them, a person not familiar with cleaning up data may end up looking at the information in the wrong way.

That being said, I did a filter to try to get an overview picture: What are the industries that the information covered?

Overview of The Job Vacancies, by Industries

For those who are not familiar with Singapore’s ministries’ reports, the economic activities are generally classified into some big areas. As mentioned earlier, the information was also broken down into sub-sectors. 

An overview of the industries categorised by MOM can be found in the table below. The ones in bold are the main categories, while the rest are sub-sectors.

The Construction industry is a special industry without any sub-categorisation, while the Services industry is formed by numerous sub-sectors which were broken down into further sub-categories. 

In the table above, I have only broken down the data into the 2nd level of details.

Information and Communications recorded the highest job vacancy rate, with Accommodation and Food Services (i.e. hotels and F&B) coming in at (not even a close) second. Community, Social and Personal Services has the third highest rate of job vacancy for Sep 2020.

Overall, the total number of job vacancies is 53,300, with a vacancy rate of 2.6% across all industries.

Top 10 Industries by Job Vacancies (In Thousands)

For this list, I went down to the smallest sub-sector as provided by the data. As the names of some sub-sectors were not that explicit in telling us what it was about, I also listed down its “parent sector” to provide more details.

SN	Sector	Sub-Sector	In Thousands
1	Community, Social And Personal Services	Public Administration & Education	7.0
2	Information And Communications	IT & Other Information Services	4.3
3	Community, Social And Personal Services	Health & Social Services	4.2
4	Financial And Insurance Services	Financial Services	4.1
5	Accommodation And Food Services	Food & Beverage Services	4.0
6	Construction	Construction	3.5
7	Wholesale And Retail Trade	Wholesale Trade	3.1
8	Professional Services	Legal, Accounting & Management Services	2.6
9	Wholesale And Retail Trade	Retail Trade	2.2
10	Administrative And Support Services	Security & Investigation	1.9

Even though the IT industry had been at the top of agendas for various upskilling or economic restructuring for recent years, the industry with the most job vacancies are actually the Public Administration & Education sector, i.e. the Public Service and teachers. It is therefore worth considering a career as a teacher, perhaps?

A career in teaching would require you to complete a Diploma course with National Institute of Education, which lasts about 2 years. Of course, the prerequisite for the NIE training is that you must be employed by MOE. Therefore, unlike many other professions that require re-skilling before you get the job, you will be assured that the time and effort invested into getting that Diploma will have an immediate pay off. 

Unless, of course, you fail your training.

Top 10 Industries by Job Vacancy Rate (In %)

As mentioned earlier, the absolute numbers only provide one perspective of the job situation. By comparing it with the size of overall employment in each sector, we can have a sense of how “urgent” the industry will need to fill the jobs.

SN	Sector	Sub-Sector	Rate (%)
1	Information And Communications	IT & Other Information Services	6.7
2	Administrative And Support Services	Security & Investigation	4.7
3	Accommodation And Food Services	Accommodation	4.0
4	Community, Social And Personal Services	Health & Social Services	3.8
5	Community, Social And Personal Services	Public Administration & Education	3.7
6	Accommodation And Food Services	Food & Beverage Services	3.6
7	Financial And Insurance Services	Financial Services	3.2
8	Wholesale And Retail Trade	Retail Trade	3.2
9	Professional Services	Legal, Accounting & Management Services	3.1
10	Manufacturing	Food, Beverages & Tobacco	3.1

Topping the list were IT & Other Information Services and Security & Investigation. In my earlier post, I mentioned that IT & Other Information Service was one of the main strategic pillars identified for the economy, so it’s not surprising that this sector still sees a strong vacancy rate.

While Security & Investigation ranked rather low on the job vacancies table (at 1.9k vacancies), it had a strong vacancy rate of 4.7%. We can’t deny the fact that Singaporeans’ aversion to the occupation of security guards and a stereotypical attitude that jobs in security services are only for the males contributed to the sector having difficulties in filling the positions.

In other words, if one is willing to overlook the stigma of security guards being a “non ideal” job and that women can do well in security jobs, this sector will quickly be filled up!

Top 10 Industries by Job Vacancy (Aggregated) 

As mentioned at the start of this article, an industry’s number of job vacancies and job vacancy rates do not tell a good story on its own. A high number of job vacancies spread out over many small firms may also mean each firm may not be urgently filling in the positions. 

The table below shows the list aggregated from the information used thus far. I assigned scores to the ranking in Tables 1 and 2, and then ranked the industries by their overall score.

SN	Sector	Sub-Sector	Score
1	Information And Communications	IT & Other Information Services	63
2	Community, Social And Personal Services	Public Administration & Education	60
3	Community, Social And Personal Services	Health & Social Services	59
4	Financial And Insurance Services	Financial Services	55
5	Accommodation And Food Services	Food & Beverage Services	55
6	Administrative And Support Services	Security & Investigation	54
7	Professional Services	Legal, Accounting & Management Services	49
8	Wholesale And Retail Trade	Retail Trade	49
9	Accommodation And Food Services	Accommodation	46
10	Administrative And Support Services	Other Administrative & Support Services	42

IT & Other Information Services

Again, IT & Other Information Services topped the list as it scored high on both lists. IT not just exists as an industry on its own, but its demand cuts across all industries. In other words, if you are trained as a network administrator, you can expect to work in an IT company, or in an IT department of an F&B business.

While buzzwords like Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity pops up on our phones everyday, it doesn’t mean you must be trained in these special areas in order to gain entry to the IT sector. Not especially if you did not study anything remotely related to computing in the past!

You can start with simple steps like taking an Intermediate or Advanced Microsoft Excel course, followed by a course on using Microsoft Excel to analyse data. Similarly, if you are interested in Digital Marketing, you can start with learning the basics of Google and Facebook, followed by Marketing basics, before advancing to an official Digital Marketing course.

Read More: Do Techies Really Earn Big Bucks?

Will I Make A Lot of Money If I’m Working In The Infocomm (ICT) Sector?

Public Administration & Education

The Public Administration & Education sector that took the 2nd spot is slightly more mysterious. While I can say that the “Education” part in the sector refers to being a teacher in MOE, the “Public Administration” basically refers to everything in the public service. The jobs could range from being an operator in the front line (like Safe Distancing Officer) or an admin personnel taking minutes.

Either way, being in the public service means having to be patient (you mean you haven’t been mean at least once to the counter guy at HDB or CPF?), confident in speaking, and good at meeting deadlines. And considering the wide variety of areas the public service covers, there is bound to an agency or department that will demand what skills you currently have. Therefore, you might want to consider training in soft skills (or to enhance the soft skills you already possess) to help you prepare for a career in public service. 

Health & Social Services

The Health & Social Services is another talent hungry sector. Post-covid, people are going to be more health conscious. And Singapore is known to be an ageing nation (and will grow even older in the next decade). Add that to the young people who are growing up woke and demanding for more social services to catch those who fall through the cracks, this sector can only grow bigger.

The only difference is that the IT & Other Information Services is growing because the government is pushing for it, while the Health & Social Services sector is growing as a trend of our society. 

Even better, you can join this sector without being tech savvy. One definitely needs to be a people person to do well in this sector. You must enjoy being around people (sorry, introverts. I understand your pain, because I’m an introvert too!). Yes, you may need to work on computers to enter case information or update inventories, but that isn’t rocket science, so it shouldn’t throw you off.

EIther way, you can still attend a basic digital literacy course if you feel insecure. If not, many polytechnics have courses to help one jumpstart their career in the Health & Social Services sector.

Preparing To Move Into These Top Industries

Perhaps you prefer to take things one step at a time. Or you are still employed, but are preparing for the D day because you’ve heard rumours in your company that retrenchment is coming. Then perhaps you can take the little steps I mentioned earlier to explore which of the industries with the highest job vacancies you can consider switching too.

If you have a bigger appetite, know what you want, or are simply desperate because you are jobless, you can always register for the multitude of mid-career courses available.

I had written extensively about SGUnited Skills and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways (Company Training). They are initiatives by SSG under the SGUnited banner to help those who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. That being said, these are not the only courses for one who’s looking to do a mid-career change.

Read More: Best SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways – Company Training for 2021

Best SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways – Company Training (SGUP) Programmes 2021

A diploma or specialist diploma course with the polytechnics or the private schools can also open doors into a new industry. Moreover, these schools also provide plenty of industrial opportunities for their students to network and get noticed by employers. Some courses are even subsidised by SSG.

IMDA, under its TeSA (TechSkills Accelerator) programme, supports individuals to be trained in the ICT domain. They have a range of programmes tailored to help you enter the ICT industry, or to deepen your skills if you are already in the IT sector. In particular, they offer scholarships to help one fund their Masters (or PhD) in the Infocomm Media sector. This would be great if you are interested in the industry with the highest job vacancies but is concerned about paying for the training!

Parting Words

As the world watched how the vaccination is rolled out and how the countries experiencing their second/third pandemic waves respond to the new development, everyone is hopeful that 2021 will see better days than 2020.

That being said, based on the developments in the last quarter of 2020 and the present outlook, the initial signs of recovery at the end of 2020 may most likely extend into 2021. The question is whether it will recover fast, or slow?

The data from MOM showed that the job market in Singapore had improved in the later half of 2020. The worst days seem to be behind, especially for people who have been displaced from their jobs. Industries like the IT & Other Information Services, Public Administration & Education and Health & Social Services, with both high number of job vacancies and job vacancies rate, are some of the areas where jobseekers have a slightly higher chance to gain employment again.

Contrary to popular beliefs, the top 10 industries with high demands for jobs do not all require one to be tech-savvy. In fact, the skills required are varied. From healthcare to security and administrative work, there should be jobs for people from various skills level.

That being said, there are plenty of courses available, both spearheaded by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and by private training providers, to help you gain entry to any of these sectors. Of course, initiatives by SSG, like the SGUnited Skills or SGUnited Mid-Career Pathway (Company Training) offer longer courses that go in depth in an area of expertise – very ideal for those who are sure of what new industry they want to switch to. Polytechnics also offer diploma and post-diploma courses for those who are seeking a headstart in a new industry (or to deepen their current skills).

Read More: Top skills to have in 2021 and how to acquire them

Skills to Have in 2021 to Overcome The Economic Downturn (And What Courses To Take)

While it’s too early to count our eggs, it doesn’t hurt to start planning for better days. This is especially so, if we’re investing our time into training to prepare ourselves for when the economy throttles ahead. By then, these industries with high demand for talents will take the lead. It would be a shame if you’re not prepared by then!

Till then, stay hopeful!

If you’re actively looking for a job, you can also make use of another SkillsFuture Singapore initiative, Skills Passport. It can be found on the MySkillFuture portal, where you can send your prospective employers digital (and secure) copies of your academic qualifications and training certificates. Read more on how you can make use of Skills Passport to give your job search a boost.