Singapore healthcare sector's online-jobs growth up 15.2% in Q3: JobTech

SINGAPORE'S healthcare sector recorded the strongest online-jobs growth at 15.2 per cent quarter on quarter in Q3 2017, followed by offshore and marine (O&M) at 12.8 per cent, said data analytics firm JobTech in its Online Job Census for Q3 2017.

Overall, the nine key sectors surveyed by the company showed a quarter-on-quarter online-jobs growth of 5.8 per cent.

The electronics and semiconductor segment registered its first negative growth in online jobs since Q4 2016, when JobTech started monitoring the jobs. This could point to a softening in manufacturing output growth, said the report.

The strengthening in the O&M online-jobs market could indicate the worst is over for one of Singapore's important manufacturing industries, said CIMB economist Song Seng Wun.

He added that the pullback in Q3 job ads in the biomedical and semiconductor clusters, two key contributors to economic growth this year, could mean that growth in the segments may have peaked.

The biotech and pharmaceuticals sector saw a fall of 0.4 per cent in online jobs, according to the survey.

The census also showed more than 10,500 jobs, or 24 per cent of the online-jobs market, will require programming skills in languages such as C, C++ and Java. More than 5,500 or 19 per cent of jobs will require skills in data management or statistical software, and 8 per cent will require knowledge in IT or security architecture. Covering 30 sectors of the economy, the survey shows the digital skills needed to access over 20,000 jobs.

Online-jobs in banking and finance grew 9.8 per cent, while logistics improved 8.6 per cent.

"Continued jobs growth in finance and logistics support the view that the global economic recovery is on track," said Mr Song.