JobCyclone Singapore Career News: 3,000 IT jobs available but do you fit the bill?

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Posted by Straits Times report on October 01, 2003 at 21:57:20:

THE infocomm sector has taken a different track from much of the rest of the Singapore economy - for one thing, there are still plenty of jobs available there.

For another, revenue growth is on the up and up.

But employers are finding it hard to fill the 3,000 available jobs in the sector because Singaporean workers simply do not measure up.

Although there is no doubting their technical skills, companies want more.

And in these times, when they can afford to be choosy, companies are doing just that.

So instead of just being good at the nuts and bolts, they want workers who have more market knowledge and a better grasp of the company\'s needs. A bit of business acumen will not hurt either.

A survey by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) on information technology manpower among 2,200 companies, conducted between late last year and early this year, revealed the numbers.

Of the jobs that were available, the positions that were hardest to fill were those which required IT workers who could develop new applications to suit the companies\' needs.

IDA chief executive Tan Ching Yee explained yesterday: \'For these professionals, they actually need in-depth knowledge about the business they are designing the software for, or else, they cannot design an application that fits in perfectly.\'

Ms Tan was responding to queries from journalists attending IX 2003 - an IT trade conference and exhibition organised by the Singapore Infocomm Technology Conference.

She added, however, that although the 3,000 figure seems high in the current jobs-scarce climate, it was relatively manageable, and was not cause for concern in the industry.

She said that the industry already employs more than 100,000 workers; and that another reason the figure seems high is that there would inevitably be a number of people in between jobs.

\'Moreover, employers can afford to be a bit more choosy, and they are more likely to wait and fill the position with the best available candidate.\'

The good news is that there will continue to be a demand for IT workers: The IDA says that there should be 4,500 jobs available in the market this year.

Meanwhile, revenue is also continuing to rise. It grew by 5 per cent to hit $32.17 billion last year from $30.65 billion in 2001, and the trend is set to continue as revenue growth is predicted to be 4.5 per cent this year and 7.5 per cent next year.

Hardware and software sales accounted for most of the revenue last year: Together, they make up almost 60 per cent of the industry\'s takings.

Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the IX 2003 exhibition yesterday evening, the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Dr Lee Boon Yang, noted that the infocomm sector had developed an \'underlying resilience\' despite the financial shock waves elsewhere.

\'People and businesses still need to communicate, and IT has become an integral part of life,\' he said.

Singapore will continue to power up its IT engine, he said.

Recent efforts to delve into areas like Web services have made \'good progress\'.

For instance, $20 million has been committed to 13 projects to pilot the use of Web services, and the projects should bring in $46 million in revenue and create more than 80 jobs over the next two years.

Singapore has also made progress in branding itself as a \'digital lab\' where innovative solutions can be tried, and the kinks worked out.

More than 80 per cent of businesses here used IT, he added, and the next step is to use IT to improve competitiveness and help Singapore businesses gain a decisive edge over competitors.