Tech hiring ramps up as Singapore nears tech-hub status: Glassdoor report
Singapore
WITH hiring demand in the tech sector catching up with demand from the finance industry, Singapore appears well on track to add "tech hub" to its financial-centre status, says a report published by Glassdoor.
The prognosis is based on data from the job and recruiting platform, which showed 5,806 open jobs in the tech sector last November, compared with 4,715 postings for jobs in finance companies that month.
Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor's chief economist and the author of the report, told The Business Times that the balance between job openings from Singapore's finance and tech sectors on Glassdoor has varied over the years, but demand from the tech sector started to pull ahead in January last year.
The transition is a natural progression for finance hubs like Singapore, he said; tech players often converge on such cities to tap talent pools drawn there by opportunities in the finance industry.
Mr Chamberlain said in the report: "Just as New York City and Chicago have transitioned from being financial centres to tech hubs in recent years, with tech employers increasingly hiring from the large pool of 'knowledge workers' attracted to the financial industry, Singapore is positioned for similar gains in tech hiring in the coming decade."
Finance has also begun to transform into a "tech" industry - one that hires software engineers, data scientists and data engineers, further enriching the cities' talent pools and driving demand for tech professionals, Mr Chamberlain said.
Other executive search firms BT spoke to identified a similar trend of increased hiring for tech roles among their finance clients, as well as growing demand overall from tech companies. However, total demand from the tech sector has yet to outstrip that of the finance industry, they said.
Recruitment agency Robert Walters Singapore observed among its clients an 81 per cent rise in tech-sector openings and a 15 per cent fall in finance-sector positions last year. Openings in finance companies still outnumber those at tech firms, although the gap shrank from 50 per cent in 2017 to 18 per cent last year.
Hudson Singapore's regional director Alena Salakhova said her company has noted a rise in the number of open tech roles in tech and finance companies alike since the second quarter of 2018. (see amendment note)
She said: "We see growth in tech roles in both (sectors), and the majority are in the finance sector as banks and financial advisory companies are all trying to go into digitalisation."
Meeting the burgeoning demand for tech talent will not be easy, as Singapore has long struggled with a skills shortage in the sector. Grant Torrens, regional director for Hays Singapore, said the firm expects a continued - though not growing - reliance on talent from abroad, even as businesses upskill or reskill their existing workforces and new hires, and the local education system equips new graduates with relevant skills.
Companies should explore existing talent pools such as women returning to work, and bringing back "glocal" talent - Singaporeans who have international experience from working in multinational companies or overseas, said Nandita Nandakumar, associate director of IT commerce at Robert Walters Singapore.
Amendment note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the name of Hudson Singapore's regional director. The article has been revised to reflect the correct name.
