Blog

[SINGAPORE] Employers in Singapore are increasingly placing less emphasis on academic qualifications when hiring, with nearly eight in 10 job vacancies in 2024 not listing them as the main consideration.

The Job Vacancies Report by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released on Friday (Mar 28) indicated that the proportion of vacancies where academic qualifications were not the primary hiring criterion went up to 78.8 per cent in 2024, up from 74.9 per cent in the previous year.

Between 2017 and 2024, this shift was more pronounced in the professionals, managers, executives and technicians or PMET category, where the increase was steeper than that for non-PMET roles over that period.

However, the report noted that, for non-PMET roles, employers were more willing to hire under-qualified candidates; more than seven in 10 indicated such openness, compared to around half for PMET vacancies.

Among the top 10 PMET job vacancies for 2024, the report listed the following occupations in which a jobseeker’s grades were not the main hiring consideration:

• Teaching and training professionals

• Software, web and multimedia developers

• Commercial and marketing sales executives

• Financial and investment advisers

• Computer network, infrastructure and platform professionals

In contrast, employers hiring for roles such as civil engineers, registered nurses and accountants were more likely to cite academic qualifications as a key consideration.

MOM said that while “academic qualifications remain an important factor”, the report indicated a growing emphasis on skills-based hiring.

For instance, the ministry said employers ranked relevant experience, and skills and abilities – such as instructing, persuasion and critical thinking – as the top two factors for considering applicants for the position.

MOM’s director for manpower research and statistics Ang Boon Heng told a media briefing that employers who prioritised skills-based hiring had given feedback that the candidates who were hired “typically resulted in better outcomes for their companies”.

The payoffs include a faster hiring process, improved employee performance and the advantages of being able to tap into a broader talent pool.

The report noted that amid a tight labour market, employers have been more flexible about their hiring criteria. 

For 58.1 per cent of vacancies, employers indicated they were open to hiring candidates with academic qualifications lower than what was stated in the job advertisement.

The Business Times reported on Mar 19 that job vacancies rebounded to 77,500 in December 2024, after falling to 61,500 in September. 

The ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons rose to 1.64 in December, up from 1.32 in September, but remained below the year-ago figure of 1.76.

PMET job vacancies continue to rise

In addition to highlighting shifts in hiring practices, MOM’s latest report found that the proportion of job vacancies for PMETs continued to rise — from 57.2 per cent in 2023 to 57.7 per cent in 2024.

MOM said demand for PMETs was stronger in growth sectors such as information and communications (ICT), financial and insurance services, and professional services.

Beyond these arenas, the report noted continued strong demand for healthcare workers such as registered and enrolled nurses, as a result of the expansion of the healthcare sector.

Newly created positions accounted for close to half of all job vacancies last year – a share that the ministry noted has been “on an upward trend over the longer term”.

The ICT sector logged the highest proportion of vacancies in new roles, at 75.1 per cent. Professional services, and financial and insurance services also created an above-average share of new roles, at 49.1 per cent and 45.7 per cent, respectively.

MOM said this was in line with the overall economic expansion of these sectors. ICT, as well as the finance and insurance sector, were among the top contributors to Singapore’s gross domestic product growth in 2024.

Commenting on the rise in PMET vacancies, Ang said such jobs are typically filled by residents. 

“It means that going forward, we can expect our resident workforce to continue to move towards higher-skill and better-paying jobs,” he said. 

Hard to fill roles

While the proportion of job vacancies that remained unfilled for at least six months fell to 19.4 per cent in 2024 – down from 23.5 per cent the year before – the report found that certain PMET and non-PMET positions continued to be hard to fill.

Among PMET vacancies, the top three hard-to-fill roles were financial and investment advisers, commercial and marketing sales executives, and teaching and training professionals. For non-PMET roles, the most difficult positions to fill were waiters, shop sales assistants and cleaners.

Across both categories, employers cited unattractive pay and long working hours as common reasons for their hiring difficulties. For PMET jobs, the most frequently cited challenge was a lack of specialised skills, while for non-PMET roles, the physically strenuous nature of the work was the top barrier.

Nevertheless, Ang said the downward trend in unfilled vacancies reflects the cumulative efforts to redesign jobs over the past decade.