Latest annual skills report spotlights evergreen skills, forecasts future demand, and identifies career growth pathways

The annual Skills Demand for the Future Economy¹ Report 2023/24, published by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), aims to share the following analyses with Singaporeans:

• Skills that have remained in high demand over the past decade;

• Skills that are forecasted to see high growth and transferability over the next two years;

• Pathways to attain specific jobs.

There is also continued emphasis on the skills in the Care, Digital and Green Economies.

The report was launched by Minister of State for Education and Manpower Gan Siow Huang at a conference today, together with industry experts who shared their insights on how the report can support individuals, enterprises, training providers and adult educators.

Enduring Skills and Future Skills

SSG studied 11 years of job posting data between 2012 to 2022, to investigate the changes to skills required by jobs in Singapore’s economy. Amidst a rapidly changing jobs landscape, some skills have endured and remained highly relevant over the decade.

Business Management, Data Management, and Production Management account for the majority of the skills composition of the Singapore Economy. The top 10 skills from each of these skills clusters have remained largely consistent over the past decade.

Similarly, the top five in-demand Critical Core Skills did not change over the past decade, with Communication consistently ranked as the most in-demand. Regardless of technology change, businesses need to be able to communicate effectively with clients and customers.

There is an increase in employer demand for Apps & Tools², which is expected given the digitalisation of our economy. In view of the fast churn of software solutions, the top 10 in-demand Apps & Tools have changed significantly over the past decade.

For the first time, SSG has provided a forecast trend of the demand and transferability of priority skills over the next two years. 24 skills were identified with demand and transferability forecasted to grow. The 24 skills were identified based on statistical projection of past trends³ across a period of 11 years from 2012 to 2022, and did not include more nascent developments, such as in the space of the Green Economy. Please refer to Annex A for a diagram of the 24 skills identified.

Multi-step Approach for Career Mobility, and Tips on Developing Skills Journey

Not every job is accessible to everyone with just a single transition. However, by considering a multi-step approach, one can open up more options for oneself and enhance one’s career mobility. This might mean, for example, getting first into a job adjacent to the job that one eventually desires, alongside progressive upskilling. The report examines the viable multi-step path for six job roles that account for 74% of the job postings from 2019 to 2022. More details can be found in Annex B.

The report shares useful tips on how to plan ahead for one’s career and skills development journey using the available tools on various government websites including SSG’s, and encourages individuals to explore training opportunities and courses available for upskilling, that are heavily subsidised by various government agencies. We also encourage readers to make use of career counselling and career coaching services offered by various government agencies.

Green, Digital, and Care Economies

As with past editions, we continue to spotlight the Green, Digital and Care Economies, as they remain key growth areas that will influence the emergence of new skills demand across different industry sectors. In addition to updates on the priority skills for these three Economies, the report uses data to bring out movement trends for selected priority skills and, for the first time, forecast the skills that may continue to grow in the near term.

Green skills growth has been consistent in the last two years, with high demand in emerging areas like agrifood, sustainable finance and carbon management. Mandatory climate related disclosure requirements will also push the demand for skills related to sustainable finance and carbon management.

On the digital front, scarcity of digital talent and high adoption costs pose challenges for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). With more businesses leveraging data and artificial intelligence (AI) for business innovation, it is critical that those in tech-heavy job roles keep up with the latest trends in data and AI to remain relevant and effective in their roles through frequent upskilling.

Singapore’s ageing population has led to an increase in the demand in care services, which fuels the demand for skills that support holistic care provision and innovative business models.

More details on the in-demand skills in the three Economies can be found in Annex C.

New Data Sets to Help Individuals Navigate the Jobs-Skills Landscape

Complementing the report, for the first time, SSG is making available online the data used in our analyses, with user-friendly tools to enable individuals and partners to personalise and harness the information. The aim is twofold: first, to help individuals obtain insights that are more relevant and actionable to their own context; second, to crowdsource new insights and perspectives on the data that will benefit all the workforce. SSG hopes that the data will generate broad and deep discussion on the skills that Singaporeans need for the future. The datasets and data dashboards are beta versions that SSG will continue to enhance as we receive feedback from users.

The full report can be found at https://jobsandskills.skillsfuture.gov.sg/insights/sdfe/previous-reports. The datasets and data dashboards can also be found in the link above.

¹ SSG’s annual skills report details priority skills and job roles in high growth economies, to share jobs and skills insights with Singaporeans so that they can better plan their skills development journey.

² Digital and technology solutions programs, in software or app formats, that help people complete tasks more efficiently and effectively e.g. Microsoft office or SQL.

³ This particular analysis does not factor pay, so niche skills requirements that command high market value are not reflected.

Refer to Annex here.

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