Remote work is still popular amongst job hunters in May

Interest in remote work is still elevated with 3.5% of searches.

Job search website, Indeed, revealed that jobseeker interest is still growing for remote work with one in every career search using remote work as keywords.

Meanwhile, 6.6% of job postings publicly mention phrases such as work from home or remote work in job descriptions.

“That figure has drifted upwards this year but remains well below the levels observed in late 2021,” it said.

Setting aside generic terms, such as “full-time” or “part-time,” remote work and similar phrases are consistently among Singapore's most popular search terms.

Callam Pickering, APAC Senior Economist at Indeed, said it will be interesting to see whether the disconnect between employers and job seekers will be an issue in attracting talent.

Lower job postings in May

Singapore job postings on Indeed dropped 1.2% compared with a month earlier - the seventh consecutive monthly decline - which left postings 16.5% lower than 2022. Whilst Singapore job postings are at their lowest level since September 2021, there were still 1.7 times as many job postings in May as before the pandemic. 

In the past three months, there were almost a 34% rise in childcare postings and the 22% increase in security & public safety roles. But overall, postings in just 16% of occupational categories were an increase than they were three months ago. 

A lot of the recent weakness in job postings has been concentrated in the healthcare sector. Postings for pharmacy roles declined 38% over the past three months, with postings for dental (-33%), veterinary (-24%) and physicians & surgeons (-22%) all falling considerably. Even nursing postings went down by 6.3%.