Singapore is 3rd most popular city for working abroad

Its popularity's stronger among Asians than Westerners.

Singapore improved its overall rankings from 5th place in 2009, according to the new Global Talent Mobility Survey 2011 which interviewed more than 162,000 employees from 66 countries.

"Especially people with a Banking (10%) or ICT (11%) function are interested to work in Singapore. For the next years the challenge is to attract talent from the West, because Singapore is much more popular in Asia," the study said.

Here's a summary of the results on Singapore:

Singapore is preferred, but not by the West

Singapore is booming, ranked 3rd as city and 7th as country it is a popular destination for the global mobile workforce. The greater part of the potential workforce for Singapore lives in India (34%), followed by China (30%) and Indonesia (22%). Particularly, Indonesian people want to work in Singapore. They rated the country four times more popular than the global average. Results further indicated that the labor force from the West, especially from the USA and UK, are less than average interested to work and live in Singapore.

Attractive for Banking and ICT, less attractive for Pharmaceuticals

Singapore's ambition is to become Southeast Asia's financial and high-tech hub, which fits the profile of her global workforce potentials. When asked in which occupational area they are working, more than average answered Banking, Financial Services & Insurance and ICT. Furthermore, companies like Google, Microsoft, and HSBC are ranked as most preferred employer brands by talent that wants to come to Singapore. Besides the financial and high-tech aspirations Singapore is planning to grow in pharmaceutical and medical technology production. However, the number of people with a background in Healthcare or Pharmaceuticals among potentials is relatively small. Approaching specific target groups is recommended to attract the necessary people.