SINGAPORE: Singapore's job market looks set to stay strong in the final quarter of
2012, with two in three employers saying they'll be hiring, according to a survey
by leading job portal, JobsCentral.
It said on Tuesday that 67.2 per
cent of the respondents, made up of HR professionals and hiring managers from
the private and public sectors, indicated they'll be hiring till the end of the
year to fill new positions, excluding replacements from staff turnover.
The majority are small-medium
enterprises (SME) at 62.4 per cent, while the multinational corporations (MNCs)
make up 27.4 per cent and the public sector forms 10.2 per cent of this group.
CEO of JobsCentral Group, Mr Lim
Der Shing, said despite the uncertain and rather slow global economy, Singapore
employers still face a very tight local labour market.
This means that employers find it
hard to even replace staff who resign and even harder to recruit new staff for
expansion.
This problem is compounded by
Singapore's shift towards less reliance on foreigners.
"The situation is especially
bad for SMEs, which may not have the resources and ability to compete with MNCs
or the government in terms of compensation, benefits and career development and
who have traditionally relied on foreigners. Certain sectors like the retail,
hospitality and healthcare section face a tough time getting the people and
employment permits they need to run their businesses," said Mr Lim.
The survey identified the top two
challenges faced by employers as a lack of supply and quality of applicants for
their jobs.
Four in five (79.5 per cent)
cited the shortage of suitable candidates applying for their job openings as
the top concern.
This is almost on par with the
next biggest challenge of being able to attract the best talents (78.5 per
cent).
About half (55.8 per cent) said
that high manpower cost was an issue.
"It is telling that manpower
cost is less of a challenge than getting good quality candidates and being able
to attract suitable talents. Many employers, in a bid to secure the candidates
that they want, have been willing to pay more to get them. A side effect of
this, besides increasing business cost, is that it results in more market churn
and encourages employees to change jobs in order to get a quick pay raise. If
many jobseekers do this, it will have an overall inflationary effect on
wages," said Mr Lim.
JobsCentral said more than 80 per
cent gave out pay increments in 2012, with almost 60 per cent giving less than
five per cent.
Four in five of the employers
indicated that pay increments have been issued this year.
The majority - 58.1 per cent -
gave out raises of below five per cent; 17.2 per cent gave out six to 10 per
cent of increment; and 5.8 per cent gave increment of more than 10 per cent.
Of those that gave higher
increment percentages, the greatest proportion comes from the public sector,
followed by the SMEs and the MNCs.
About 400 respondents took part
in the online survey conducted in August.
- CNA/ck
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