Singapore’s statistical standard adds job codes for roles in tech, green economy

SINGAPORE has created new occupational codes for jobs in infocomm technology and the green economy in its national statistical standard, as the country has made strides in these areas and related jobs have become more in-demand.

In the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Professionals group, job codes such as ICT product manager, artificial intelligence (AI) applied researcher, AI/machine learning engineer and development operations engineer were introduced, the Singapore Department of Statistics (Singstat) said in a report on Thursday (Mar 21).

Such job roles are becoming more relevant, as Singapore commits to the digital economy, with strategic partnerships and initiatives exploring the potential of technologies such as AI and business digitalisation, it said.

Other newly created roles include cyber incident investigation specialist and threat analysis specialist, which are meant to improve the coverage of cybersecurity professionals, amid the increasing number of cybersecurity attacks and threats targeting businesses and individuals.

To cater to the expected increase in demand for sustainability-related jobs, four occupations – environmental analyst, energy portfolio manager, sustainability project development/management professional, and environmental commodities trader – were created for the green economy. Singstat identified demand for new carbon management services and jobs.

New codes were added in certain fields with main tasks and duties that are distinct from existing occupations, as well as for new jobs that are becoming more prevalent in emerging industries.

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Agriculturist and aquaculturist, for example, were provided with a new code. Previously, they were subsumed in the residual code, which comprise less common types of occupational groups that are not significant enough to justify a separate code.

New codes were created for non-financial risk analyst as the role becomes increasingly distinct from generic policy-planning professionals; and executive secretary to acknowledge the increased skills needed – compared to usual secretaries – to perform “the additional specialised organisational and administrative tasks to support top executives”.

Higher-level changes

The national statistic standard, known as the Singapore Standard Occupational Classification (SSOC), comprises five levels of aggregation. Each subsequent level represents a sub-division of the previous one: major groups, representing very broad fields of work; sub-major groups; minor groups; unit groups; and occupations.

In the 14th edition of the standards, a new unit group was established to separate jobs that typically perform back-office transactions and operational support, from credit and loans officers who analyse and evaluate financial information on applications for credit.

A minor group was created to separately group social services, counselling and related professionals, which were previously classified in the same minor group as social science researchers and religious professionals.

This is meant to recognise the increasing importance of the care economy, and encompasses a new employment support professionals unit group.

“Some occupations have been reclassified across unit groups, taking into consideration the main tasks and duties of these occupations in the context of Singapore and developments in recent years,” Singstat said.

These changes are among others in SSOC 2024, which follows the last edition published in 2020. SSOC classifies occupations based on the type of work performed, and is designed for use in data collection, such as in censuses, surveys and administrative records.

The latest review was undertaken by Singstat, alongside a working group of representatives from various agencies.