Tech’s been hit by layoffs. But Singapore is still investing big in its talent — in tech and beyond

Singapore hasn’t been spared the layoffs which have hit the worldwide tech trade since 2022.

Online market Carousell reduce 10% of its whole headcount final December, and Shopee informed The Straits Times it began a 3rd spherical of layoffs final November.

But regardless of the downsizing, Singapore continues to be investing closely in tech abilities. Efforts at hiring and cultivating tech expertise — in each the nation’s tech and non-tech sectors — proceed to be sturdy.

Singapore banks OCBC, DBS and UOB have every developed applications that practice know-how workers and put together college students to enter the tech trade. OCBC, for its half, introduced in 2022 plans to rent 1,500 tech workers over the subsequent three years.

And STLogistics introduced final yr it will make investments 1.7 million Singapore {dollars} ($1.2 million) to encourage workers to select up digital abilities like software program robotics. Singaporean telecommunications firm M1 launched a program to equip undergraduate college students with abilities like cloud infrastructure help, it mentioned on its web site.

Demand for these abilities is not going away anytime quickly — within the tech sector and past.

Tech jobs have turn into more and more common lately.

In 2022, almost seven in 10 of all vacancies in info and communications have been new positions, which a report by the Ministry of Manpower confirmed was the best degree throughout all sectors for the third consecutive yr.

Across job vacancies, know-how expertise like software program builders and purposes managers continued to be extremely wanted, the report added.

That degree of demand is anticipated to stay because the economic system digitalizes, mentioned Terence Chia, cluster director at Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

“This has been a consequence of tech companies anchoring and growing their higher-value tech development and corporate functions here,” he mentioned.

On high of that, demand for people in “specialized tech areas” corresponding to synthetic intelligence and cybersecurity is not restricted to the tech sector, Chia informed CNBC. Such tech staff are wanted throughout a number of industries corresponding to finance, manufacturing, logistics {and professional} companies, he mentioned.

In finance, know-how is the engine that “powers all the big banks,” mentioned Donald MacDonald, OCBC head of group knowledge.

“We want everyone in the bank to … at least have foundational data literacy,” he mentioned.

OCBC designed a program that equips workers with fundamental knowledge abilities and teaches them how knowledge can be utilized of their jobs, he mentioned.

According to MacDonald, the financial institution makes use of knowledge to know its buyer profiles and personalize every buyer’s expertise.

Data additionally performs a component in decreasing threat — OCBC scans each transaction to detect scams and makes use of algorithms to determine “who to lend to and … how much to lend,” he mentioned.

Another knowledge evaluation program trains workers in divisions like finance and threat administration, MacDonald mentioned. It has educated about 400 workers to make use of superior knowledge evaluation abilities like Python, which MacDonald mentioned will assist them “move beyond” utilizing Excel and different easy instruments.

“I see Singapore establishing [itself] as a kind of regional hub for A.I. and deep tech,” MacDonald mentioned.

IMDA’s plans are broader in scale: It has educated extra than 15,000 Singaporeans and positioned them in specialised tech jobs, mentioned Chia. The jobs span a spread of industries, together with monetary companies, wholesale and retail commerce, and training, he added.

Those jobs typically have steep studying curves however, Chia mentioned, program contributors obtain “on-the-job training and classroom learning” to select up specialised abilities.

One of IMDA’s applications places non-tech professionals by means of an “intensive, bootcamp-style experience” that helps them become tech professionals, he mentioned.

Higher training is not any exception. Chia mentioned “many leading companies” help IMDA’s joint initiative with the Ministry of Education to coach and create job alternatives for tech college students in vocational institutes.

“There continue to be many opportunities in the digital economy for Singaporeans,” Chia mentioned.

Globally, tech firms have reportedly reduce 102,391 jobs up to now this yr, however the worth of tech expertise has removed from diminished in Singapore.