Job vacancies were filled more quickly in 2017 compared to the year before, but non-PMET positions remained harder to fill than PMET ones.
This was mainly due to unattractive pay, work on weekends/public holidays and shift work.
In addition, reflecting the continuing shift towards higher value added jobs, the PMET share of job vacancies continued to rise in 2017, according to the Job Vacancies report 2017 issued by Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Feb 7, 2018.
The proportion of vacancies unfilled for at least six months continued to decline, from 36 percent in 2016 to 33 percent in 2017.
Non-PMET vacancies remained harder to fill than PMET openings. 49 percent of non-PMET vacancies were unfilled for at least six months, in particular among service and sales workers. Unattractive pay, work on weekends/public holidays and shift work continued to be reasons these openings were unattractive to locals.
On the other hand, only 16 percent of PMET openings were unfilled for at least six months. They included openings for software, web & multimedia developers, which employers attributed to candidates lacking the necessary work experience and specialised skills.
For PMETs, academic qualifications were not the main consideration for filling 42 percent of PMET vacancies. Such positions included civil engineers, commercial & marketing sales executives, and software, web & multimedia developers. However, these positions typically required working experience. For the majority (90 percent) of non-PMET vacancies, academic qualifications were not the main consideration when selecting candidates to fill the vacancies.
The report added that as the nature of jobs continues to evolve with technology and industry transformation, mismatches will be a growing challenge.
For employers that face difficulty in filling non-PMET jobs, more needs to be done to redesign and improve the quality of these jobs, as well as to facilitate job matching.