Labour Hiring In Singapore Fell 14% In 2022

SINGAPORE – The latest data from LinkedIn showed that overall manpower recruitment in the city-state declined by 14 percent so far this year following a 40 percent jump in hiring in the preceding year, reported IT Pro on Wednesday evening (16 November, SGT).

The job and recruitment platform revealed that from 2020 to 2021, labour hiring across the globe surged by 40 percent across all sectors. Between 2021 and 2022, the surge continued based on statistics taken during the period.

However, the hiring level in Singapore fell by 14 percent so far this year. Comparatively, other countries reported a drop ranging from 12 percent to 18 percent, said LinkedIn’s Head of Asia talent and learning solutions, Frank Koo.

He shared this during a panel discussion at Stack 2022, a developer conference hosted by the city-state’s digital transformation agency, GovTech.

Koo described this weaker hiring level as a rebalancing of the manpower sector. Nonetheless, LinkedIn stated that there are still many more jobs available in Singapore and other countries compared to the number of people looking for employment.

Aside from that, tech firms pulled many of the best talent out of the jobs market over the past 5 years, noted GovTech Board Member Noah Pepper, who was the former head for Asia Pacific at Stripe.

However, smaller businesses and other companies outside of the tech industry have found it more challenging to recruit the right people for the job as the talent pool has shrunk.

At present, there’s an uneven distribution of manpower change for big tech firms even though these companies like Facebook and Twitter have let go of a significant number of employees recently.

Koo explained that hiring the right talent now requires companies to rethink the overall job package they are offering. Firms will have to show what they can offer to staff when in terms of skills development and career progression.