LinkedIn lists 15 fastest-growing roles in S’pore as 2 in 3 locals seek a new job in 2023

Leveraging its access to close to 900 million users spanning 200 countries, LinkedIn is annually publishing a summary of “Jobs on the Rise” in selected markets — i.e. positions which have been growing in popularity in the span of the previous five years and continued the trend into the most recent year of the report.

Here’s the methodology explainer:

LinkedIn Economic Graph researchers examined millions of jobs started by LinkedIn members from 1 January 2018 to 31 July 2022 to calculate a growth rate for each job title.

To be ranked, a job title needs to see consistent growth across our membership base, as well as have grown to a meaningful size by 2022.

Identical job titles across different seniority levels were grouped and ranked together. Internships, volunteer positions, interim roles and student roles were excluded, and jobs where hiring was dominated by a small handful of companies in each country were also excluded.

In-demand skills

Majority of this year’s Top 15 list fall into two segments, giving us some idea of what skills are in demand in 2023:

1. Sales and customer relations

Highlighted roles:

2. Technology

In addition, there are individual professions representing other industries/areas:

In summary, there are two sets of skills that can land you a good job: either you know how to sell or otherwise make more money for the company, or you possess valuable technical skills — i.e. know how to do certain things.

Self-improvement on the rise

54 per cent of Singaporeans polled as a part of this survey have confirmed they took additional effort to improve their skills and seek education in areas that are currently in-demand.

It’s certainly good news for the Singaporean economy, but not so good for other ambitious jobseekers, as it means tougher competition for better paid positions, given how many people are taking steps to make themselves more attractive.

In fact, 65 per cent of local professionals are considering looking for a new job in 2023, driven mostly by inflation pushing living costs up, seeking a higher pay (especially given recent reports that the best way to secure a 15 to 20 per cent (or higher) boost to your salary is to change your job).

At the same time, however, there’s some good news for employers, as 58 per cent of their staff would happily stay at their current workplace if given a boost to their income, meaning that it’s not dissatisfaction with career prospects that’s driving people to look for a switch, but purely financial matters.

Though negotiating with them may be more difficult than ever, as the survey’s highest percentage on record — 46 per cent this year — are feeling more confident pushing for a raise or promotion this year (though we’ll see how that pans out in practice, of course).

Better than elsewhere

It’s still very much employee’s market in Singapore, as the recent report by Manpower Group placed it among the Top 3 countries starved for talent, as 84 per cent of local employers report problems hiring the right people.

With unemployment very much back to pre-pandemic levels even the likely economic slowdown, which has long been forecast for 2023, is unlikely to pinch regular Singaporeans painfully simply because local businesses still have ranks that need to be filled.

And while giants like Google, Twitter or Amazon might be shedding jobs, smaller companies will happily bring the talent on board to propel their growth.

As long as you have valuable skills, which can meaningfully contribute to the bottom line, not only do you have no reason to fear for your job, but you should shop around to find yourself the highest bidder, before someone else does.

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