SINGAPORE — Jobs may be at stake as the Covid-19 pandemic is battering economies worldwide, but there are at least 33,000 job vacancies in Singapore as of end-May in some sectors that are actively hiring.

Online jobs portal JobStreet.com released its Job Report for Employers in Singapore Amidst Covid-19 on Tuesday (June 9), listing the top 10 industries that are now looking to recruit workers, ranked according to the availability of jobs.

They are:    

1. Healthcare

2. Education

3. Banking and finance

4. Government

5. Computing and information technology (IT)

6. Security and law enforcement

7. Transportation and logistics

8. Construction/Building/Engineering

9. Manufacturing and production

10. Insurance

While it did not indicate the entry level for the jobs available, a spokesperson for JobStreet provided details for the top five sought-after specialisations for healthcare, education, and banking and finance. 

Healthcare

• Nurse / Medical support and assistant (healthcare)

• Customer service

• Clerical/Administrative support

• Pharmacy (healthcare)

• Human resources

Education

• Educators

• Clerical / Administrative support

• Science & Technology / Laboratory

• Software (IT/Computer)

• Network / System / Database administrator (IT/Computer)

Banking & Finance

• Banking/Financial services

• Software (IT/Computer)

• Sales / Financial services (insurance, unit trust, etc)

• Network / System / Database administrator (IT/Computer)

• Clerical / Administrative support

In particular, the report noted in April that there has been a 41 per cent increase in advertisements for security and law enforcement jobs, such as security officers or supervisors and night security officers, compared to figures from January to March.

Science and technology jobs registered the next highest increase at 20 per cent during the same period, with vacancies for microbiologists, research fellows, laboratory technicians or research assistants.

While these jobs are available, the report qualified to say that the various industries are not immune to the “detrimental effects” of Covid-19.

For example, the number of job postings for the transportation, construction and manufacturing sectors have fallen by 55 to 75 per cent year on year.

“However, due to the sheer volume of job ads that companies in these industries continue to post, they remain the top industries that are still actively hiring,” JobStreet said.

The top five industries with the biggest drop in job advertisements are:

JobStreet said that the five industries including aerospace and retail have been directly affected by the coronavirus and the circuit breaker rules to limit movement of people that were in force from April 7 to June 1.

With the gradual reopening of the economy from June 2, businesses are expected to recuperate at a slow rate, it added.

The “significant reduction” in job openings in general means that current employees as well as displaced candidates in these industries will now have to vie for a much smaller pool of jobs, Jobstreet.com said.

As illustrated, applications for each job advertised in these industries have gone up by 27 to 81 per cent.

OTHER FINDINGS

Preliminary data from the Ministry of Manpower in April showed that in the first three months of this year, the main industries that experienced a drop in employment were manufacturing, construction and services — with the services sector experiencing the sharpest decline. The finalised data will be released next week.

JobStreet’s report found that in April, there were more than 11 million job-related searches observed on Google.

Based on JobStreet’s internal data, “admin” was the top job-search keyword for April, a position it has held since January this year.

This was followed by “data entry”, which was previously the 15th most-searched keyword from January to March.  

The report explained that this 162 per cent spike in searches for data-entry jobs could be because recently retrenched workers were looking for a quick temporary job that did not require specific industry knowledge.

“With the circuit breaker coming into effect around April, data-entry jobs allow retrenched workers to work from home and still earn salaries to help them tide over the difficult periods,” it said.

“Temperature screener”, which was previously unranked, was the seventh most-searched keyword in April. 

The report noted that such roles were job opportunities that were created as a result of the pandemic. 

On its part, JobStreet said that it has launched two initiatives that will hopefully help job applicants find secure employment quickly.

The first is a new feature called #WorkNow, which allows jobseekers to indicate to potential employers their immediate availability to work.

The second is a Covid-19 Jobs and Resources Hub, which features companies that are hiring during the pandemic.