Emerging Hiring Trends in the Singapore Market

The COVID-19 ‘Circuit Breaker’ in Singapore started in April 2020 and last for almost two months before it was lifted on 1st June. Here are our observations on the trends in the Singapore job market post the circuit breaker period.

Based on our observations of the market, combined with client sentiment, there was definitely caution in terms of hiring in the market in the months following the Circuit Breaker. Clients and candidates alike were adopting a “wait-and-see” approach, hoping to catch a hint of market recovery.

There was a sharp increase of roles in the second half of 2020, with around 90% of open roles being a backlog of roles that were meant to be filled before the pandemic broke out. We saw Clients restarting their hiring engines with gradual momentum.

At the start of 2021, 70% of open roles were mainly new or expansion positions as organisations were poised to tackle the stronger economy. We saw clients relocating their Centre’s of Excellence to Singapore or growing their presence in APAC, through Singapore.

Over the last 12 months, about half the positions ArcBlue Search filled were new roles or roles that were redefined, 30% were roles that were backfilled as employees were rotated to different functions and the remaining 20% were due to attrition.

• Hybrid roles – combining existing skillsets into one position;
• Planning roles – roles that are heavy on analytic. These have been highly sought after by our clients in the FMCG, Life Sciences and High-Tech space.

Some of the highly specialized roles we’ve successfully helped our clients fill recently include end-to-end Supply Chain experience combined with Digitalisation, and Demand Planning with an emphasis on Analytics & Commercial Planning.

For further insights on key talent trends specific to your industry or to look forward and start talent pipelining, contact me at dympna.wong@arcbluesearch.com or reach out to the team at info@arcbluesearch.com.