Guess what? Lots more Singaporeans keen to go and work abroad now

THE percentage figures may be a little eyebrow- raising, but recent survey findings by a recruiting consultancy would seem to give the lie to the notion that Singaporeans are a stodgy bunch when it comes to relocating overseas for work.

According to a poll by recruiter Hays, 97 per cent of Singapore job-seekers said they would consider working overseas - the majority drawn by the prospect of better job opportunities, career development or exposure, while some cited "lifestyle factors" as the reason for going abroad. Only 3 per cent would not consider venturing overseas to work. The strong positive response has earned the Singapore workforce a new accolade in the Hays study - "the most globally-mobile in Asia" (though China is a close second with 96 per cent of its job-hunters happy to work overseas, and Hong Kong not too far behind at 94 per cent).

These findings should, of course, be seen in the light of the survey parameters. For instance, the 2,553 survey respondents across Hays' network in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Japan were all job-seekers, not the population at large, and would presumably include more white-collar professionals than other groups. And unlike, say, Europeans driven by the lack of domestic job opportunities to look for work overseas, the Asians who venture out seek international exposure. For Singapore, the Hays results suggest that the long-held perception about Singaporeans being reluctant to work abroad is perhaps no longer correct.