Increase attributed to workplace flexibility, gender equality, work-life balance
Parental leave policies are becoming more popular in Singapore, according to job posting data released by Indeed.
In the first half of 2024, 1.7% of Singapore job postings in Indeed used phrases such as "parental leave" or "maternal leave in their job descriptions."
Callam Pickering, APAC senior economist at Indeed, attributed the increase to shifts in attitudes towards workplace flexibility, gender equality, and work-life balance.
"Strong competition for talent may also be a contributing factor, with benefits often used to stand out against your peers," Pickering said in a statement.
Parental leave policies are mostly mentioned in the childcare sector (4%), despite it seeing a decrease of 3.4 percentage points over the past two years.
"While childcare is the sector where parental leave is most commonly mentioned, it was also the sector that experienced the largest decline over the past two years," Pickering said.
On the other hand, the greatest increase in job postings mentioning parental leave since 2022 was recorded in civil engineering, which recorded an increase 2.2 percentage points.
Meanwhile, Indeed data also revealed job postings declined by 5.7% in June, and are 13.4% lower than a year ago.
"While job postings fell in June and were lower over the year, Singapore's job market is proving to be resilient in the face of a challenging economic environment," Pickering said. "Overall, unemployment in Singapore remains low and skill-shortages remain common. Recruitment is perhaps easier than it was a year ago but still remains quite challenging by historical standards."
By occupation group, architecture jobs posted a 15.7% increase on Indeed in since March 31. Other groups that saw an increase include retail (14.1%) and medical technician jobs (13%).
Over the past three months, dental jobs saw a 34.6% decline in job ads, becoming the worst-performing occupation group during the period. Decline in job ads were also recorded in security and public safety (32.9%) and mathematics (26.8%)
"As noted above, job posting volumes remain healthy for every sector, even those with sizable recent declines," Pickering said. "Singapore's labour market continues to be incredibly tight, despite a considerable decline in job postings. Competition for talent is still elevated across most occupational categories."
