Singapore still investing big in tech talent despite layoffs

Singapore has not been spared the layoffs that have hit the global technology industry since 2022.

Online Carousel Market Reducing 10% of the total number of employees last december and Schubey told The Straits Times it had begun a third round of layoffs last November.

But despite its downsizing, Singapore is still investing heavily in technical skills. Efforts to recruit and develop technical talent – ​​in both the tech and non-tech sectors of the country – remain strong.

Singaporean banks OCBC, DBS and UOB have all developed programs to train technology personnel and prepare students to enter the technology industry. For its part, OCBC announced in 2022 plans to hire 1,500 technical staff over the next three years.

Last year, STLogistics announced it would invest S$1.7 million ($1.2 million) to encourage employees to acquire digital skills such as coding bots. Singaporean telecom operator M1 has launched a program to provide undergraduates with skills such as cloud infrastructure support, it said on its website.

The demand for these skills isn’t going away anytime soon – in the technology sector and beyond.

In 2022, nearly seven out of 10 of all information and communications job vacancies were new positions. A report from the Ministry of Manpower It was the highest level across all sectors for the third year in a row.

Across job vacancies, the search for technical talent such as software developers and application managers continued, the report added.

This level of demand is expected to remain as the economy becomes digital, said Terence Shea, cluster director at Singapore’s Information Media Development Authority (IMDA).

“This was the result of technology companies anchoring and nurturing the development of high-value technology and corporate functions here,” he said.

Moreover, the demand for personnel in “niche technology areas” such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity is not limited to the technology sector, Xia told CNBC. He said such technology workers are needed in many industries such as finance, manufacturing, logistics and professional services.

In finance, technology is the engine that “powers all the big banks,” said Donald McDonald, OCBC’s head of group data.

“We want everyone in the bank … to have at least a basic knowledge of data,” he said.

He said OCBC designed a program that provides employees with basic data skills and teaches them how data can be used in their jobs.

According to MacDonald, the bank uses the data to understand customer profiles and customize each customer’s experience.

Data also plays a role in mitigating risk — OCBC scans every transaction for fraud and uses algorithms to figure out “who you lend to and … how much to lend,” he said.

Another data-analytics program, McDonald said, trains employees in departments such as finance and risk management. It has trained about 400 employees to use advanced data analysis skills such as Python, which McDonald said will help them “go beyond” using Excel and other simple tools.

“I see Singapore establishing (itself) as a kind of regional hub for AI and deep technology,” MacDonald said.

worldwide, Tech companies are said to have cut 102,391 jobs so far this year, but the value of tech talent has not diminished in Singapore.