At least 4 in 5 tech talents could face limited opportunities as job market cools

[SINGAPORE] Industry watchers warn that at least 80 per cent of Singapore’s tech talents could face limited opportunities amid a cooling job market. But the cream of the crop is still in high demand.

“The top 10 to 20 per cent of tech talents will be highly sought after,” Ethan Ang, chief executive officer of tech career platform NodeFlair, told The Business Times.

Some of these top talents might even receive multiple job offers, he said.

However, the future looks dimmer for the majority of tech professionals.

According to jobs platform Indeed, the number of job postings related to IT infrastructure, operations and support fell 17.6 per cent between May and August in Singapore, while data and analytics roles declined 15.9 per cent.

The 30 to 50 per cent pay hikes that were common during the Covid-19 era, which saw intense competition for tech talent, has also evaporated.

In its latest tech salary report, NodeFlair found that the salary of software engineers in Singapore only increased by 3.3 per cent in 2024.

The Singapore Digital Economy Report published by the Infocomm Media Development Agency (IMDA) echoed this sentiment.

It noted that skills in web development, such as through programming languages JavaScript, HTML and CSS, have become “less prominent over time”.

Demand for AI skills remain high

But for the top 20 per cent of tech talent, especially those with artificial intelligence (AI) skills, there is a surge in demand.

Singapore is now a leader for AI talent demand, with one in six local job postings on Indeed mentioning AI skills. These include machine learning, generative AI and agentic AI.

The surge is most prominent in data and analytics positions, where 57 per cent of all roles mentioned AI skills. This is followed by software development (39 per cent) and scientific research (35 per cent).

IMDA noted that programming skills through languages Python and SQL remained “highly sought after” by employers. It also found that 73.8 per cent of workers in the Republic are using AI tools at work.

In their recently released report, payroll and human resource platform Deel noted that globally, talents specialised in AI roles, cybersecurity and digital marketing will command up to 25 per cent premium above base compensation.

Not the end of tech

For aspiring and current tech professionals, the shift in demand means that solely having a tech degree is no longer enough.

Richard Farmer, managing director for Asia at talent firm CXC, pointed out that while tech companies are still aggressively hiring tech talents, they are seeking experienced talents.

For fresh graduates, it would be beneficial to obtain real hands-on experience, through internships, to understand what it is like to work under stress, he said.

Ang from NodeFlair concurred. He said: “The ones that really do very well in this market are those that are very adaptive and very passionate.”

But all hope is not lost for fresh graduates.

Demand for tech professionals remains stable, as the number of workers rose 2.7 per cent from 208,300 in 2023 to 214,000 in 2024, IMDA said.

The authority added that the median wage of tech jobs rose to S$7,950 in 2024, from S$7,000 the year prior. This is higher than the overall resident median wage of S$4,860 in 2024.

Ang noted that Singapore is slowly swinging from an “extreme” employer market towards an employee market, even though it is still heavily leaning towards the employers.

At this year’s National Day Rally in August, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced a new graduate traineeship programme which aims to provide 800 fresh graduates with up to six months of traineeship.

Ang commented that the traineeship is a “good step in the right direction”, and that it will “definitely stimulate more employment”.

The traineeship complements existing national initiatives, such as the AI Apprenticeship Programme organised by AI Singapore (AISG). The six to nine-month programme seeks to equip Singapore citizens with technical skills such as programming and machine learning.

More than 400 Singaporean AI engineers have graduated from the AI Apprenticeship Programme since 2018, AISG told BT.