Singapore's labour market has continued to improve for the first half of 2018, with job vacancies hitting a three-year high in June.
Meanwhile, retrenchments declined and total employment grew in the six months ending June, said Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in the quarterly labour market report released on Thursday, Sept 13.
However, job-skills mismatch will continue to pose a challenge to the industries.
“As restructuring picks up pace amidst increased economic activity, jobs and skills mismatches will continue to be a challenge. It will therefore be increasingly important for workers and businesses to stay agile and responsive to economic transformation and an evolving workforce landscape,” said MOM.
Job vacancies rose to a three-year high of 56,700 in June this year, up from 53,900 in March, Todayonline reported.
During the first half of the year, there were 5,350 retrenchments in the first half of the year. This is lower than the 7,640 in the first half of 2017. However, more were retrenched in Q2 compared to Q1, “largely due to reorganisation and restructuring”, said MOM.
Growth was observed mainly in the community, social and personal services sector, the financial and insurance services sector, the information and communications sector, as well as the transportation and storage sectors.
MOM said it expects labour demand to pick up for the second half of the year, in line with seasonal hiring seen previously.
Hiring will likely remain cautious in sectors such as construction and marine shipyard, the ministry noted. Job opportunities will continue to be available in information and communications, financial and insurance services, healthcare, professional services, wholesale trade and the built environment sectors.
Labour supply in the medium term will remain tight, MOM said.