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Jobs Situation Report (26 August 2020)

More than 6,300 opportunities available in the manufacturing. 30% helped by career matching services in 2020.

Employment practices Skills, training and development
  1. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges in our employment landscape, with some sectors being impacted more than others. While the manufacturing sector has been affected by the pandemic, some sub-sectors such as the biomedical science remain bright spots and continue to need more workers.
  2. This week’s Jobs Situation Report focuses on job, traineeship and attachment, and training opportunities available in the manufacturing sector, with a focus on the biomedical science sub-sector. Upcoming Jobs Situation Reports will also highlight similar opportunities in other sub-sectors within manufacturing.
  3. To better support jobseekers, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Workforce Singapore (WSG) and our partners expanded our offerings and improved accessibility to career advisory and matching services. This includes setting up 24 SGUnited Jobs & Skills Centres across all HDB towns, growing a pool of Career Advisors to complement WSG’s team of full-time career coaches, and enhancing digital career matching services to reach out to jobseekers during the Circuit Breaker. This week’s report will highlight the interagencies’ effort.

    SGUnited Jobs and Skills Opportunities in the Manufacturing Sector
  4. Manufacturing remains a significant engine of the Singapore economy, contributing about 20 per cent to its GDP and employing about 472,000 workers. To sharpen manufacturing competitiveness, Singapore has embarked on a series of transformation initiatives. These include efforts to establish a strong base of leading technology and solutions providers to promote Industry 4.0 adoption; committing to invest S$3.2 billion in R&D in Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering to build up innovation capacity of companies embarking on Industry 4.0; and developing local talents through a nationwide series of modular courses.
  5. To date, close to 1,000 companies in the manufacturing sector have come onboard SGUnited Jobs and Skills programmes, offering more than 6,300 jobs, traineeship and attachment, and training opportunities to local jobseekers. Among which, close to 5,100 are for PMETs and more than 1,200 are for non-PMETs.

    Table 1 - Opportunities in the manufacturing sector
  6. Based on MyCareersFuture.sg data, the top hiring roles in manufacturing include engineering professionals, electronics engineers, manufacturing engineering technicians, production clerks and administrative professionals or associates. The median salaries for these roles range from $1,500 to $4,700.

    Table 2 - Top hiring roles and median salary in manufacturing
  7. Between April 2020 and June 2020, more than 730 jobseekers have entered the manufacturing sector with support from the SGUnited Jobs and Skills programmes. About 62% are mid-career individuals who participated in WSG’s Professional Conversion Programmes. Some companies may also fill new positions directly without using MyCareersFuture.sg or notifying MOM or WSG.
  8. Fresh and recent graduates who have interest in manufacturing can also enter the sector through the SGUnited Traineeships Programme. Since June 2020, about 60 of them have embarked on traineeships with more than 25 host organisations to gain industry-relevant experience and build professional networks. We expect more traineeship and attachment positions to be filled in the coming months.
  9. The biomedical science sub-sector remains a bright spot. From January to June 2020, output in the biomedical manufacturing cluster grew 26.7%, compared to the same period in 2019. This was led by higher production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and biological products in the pharmaceuticals segment.

    SGUnited Jobs and Skills Opportunities in the Biomedical Science Sub-Sector
  10. Singapore is also a leading location for best-in-class biomedical science manufacturing plants. Industry leaders such as Becton Dickinson, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Amgen have global manufacturing hubs in Singapore. The sector employs around 25,000 workers and continues to hire.
  11. To date, there are close to 400 opportunities offered by more than 50 companies in the biomedical science sector under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. Available roles include Biotechnologist, Production Manager (Cell & Gene Therapy), Automation Engineers, Chemist, Validation Specialists, Quality Assurance Managers and Microbiologists. About 75% remain unfilled.
  12. In anticipation of an increase in manpower demand as the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry – one of biomedical science subsectors – continues to grow, WSG and the Economic Development Board (EDB) have worked with industry stakeholders to launch the new PCP for Advanced Biopharmaceuticals Manufacturing Professionals and Executives.
  13. Together with the PCP for Medical Technology Engineer and Assistant Engineer, an additional 450 mid-career jobseekers can look forward to new careers in the biomedical science sector over the next three years.
  14. Jobseekers can also tap on four biomedical-related courses under the SGUnited Skills programme to undergo training to take on technical roles such as biotechnologist, process technician or engineers, quality control chemist, assistant equipment engineer, manufacturing specialist, maintenance technician and operation manager.

    Assisting more jobseekers through Career Matching Services
  15. To ensure that local jobseekers are able to continue to access the opportunities available in our economy even during COVID-19, MOM, WSG and our partners have intensified efforts to support Singaporeans in their job search process.
  16. From January to July 2020, 36,400 jobseekers received basic career advisory or job search assistance through WSG and NTUC-e2i’s career matching services. This is 30% more than the same period in 2019, despite constraints during the Circuit Breaker on physical travelling and face-to-face interactions. Of the 36,400 jobseekers, 22,700 received individualised career coaching, which is 20% more than the same period in 2019.
  17. During the Circuit Breaker, WSG’s and NTUC-e2i’s career coaches and ambassadors worked very closely with their jobseeker clients to ensure that job search activities continued as smoothly as possible. A range of job search preparatory workshops and seminars, talks on industry insights, career coaching and guidance, career fairs, job interviews and networking sessions with employers were conducted virtually, all of which were strongly supported by jobseekers who showed willingness to adapt quickly.
  18. Many jobseekers also adapted well to phone or video coaching during the Circuit Breaker, and as at end July, the take-up for such virtual coaching remained high. For jobseekers who were not as digitally savvy, WSG’s career coaches and career ambassadors guided them to access these services over the phone or through messaging services such as WhatsApp to ensure they would not be disadvantaged in their job search.
  19. Together with other career conversion and reskilling programmes and activities to address mismatches, WSG placed a total of about 19,000 jobseekers from January to June 2020. This is about 15% more than the same period in 2019.
  20. With the completed rollout of all 24 satellite SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres island-wide helping to increase touchpoints for jobseekers as part of the overall implementation of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, the Government is fully committed to walk the journey with our businesses and jobseekers, providing guidance and support along every step of the way to help them bounce back quickly and stronger than ever. For more information on WSG’s programmes and career advisory and matching services, jobseekers are encouraged to visit www.mycareersfuture.sg/careercoaching or call WSG’s hotline at 6883 5885.