Should qualifications or experience matter more in recruits?

More Singapore employers are looking beyond academic qualifications when hiring executives, according to a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) report.

The proportion of professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) vacancies where academic qualification was not a main consideration increased to 52% in 2018 – it was 42% in 2017.

The report found that employers placed stronger emphasis on skills or relevant work experience for positions including software, web and multimedia developers, system analysts and commercial and marketing sales executives.

However, 21% of PMET job vacancies remain unfilled for six months or more in 2018, with employers stating top reasons as a lack of candidates with necessary specialised skills (54%) or work experience (31%).

According to the report, non-PMET positions remain harder to fill, with 49% of jobs unfilled for at least six months. Employers indicated reasons such as unattractive pay (47%) and physically strenuous job nature (52%).

Vacancies for non-PMET positions such as cleaners, shop sales assistants and security guards have also declined, the report said.

MOM shared that 42% of the 63,300 job vacancies in 2018 were newly created positions arising from business formation and expansion, with majority of roles commonly from the community, social and personal services, manufacturing, as well as ICT industries.

“As companies reinvent and build digital capabilities, new jobs in demand in technical and analytical fields have emerged,” MOM said. “For non-PMET job openings which tend to be harder to fill, employers are encouraged to improve job quality through job redesign and salary review to make them more attractive to locals.”