Unattractive pay, unfavourable schedule hamper hiring for semi-skilled roles in 2024

Roles often remain unfilled for over six months.

The hiring market for semi-skilled roles faced persistent challenges during the year, including physically demanding conditions, unattractive pay, unfavourable work schedules, and unappealing work environments, according to a Jobstreet by Seek report.

The report cited the Ministry of Manpower statistics which highlighted hard-to-fill vacancies for waiters, cleaners, and customer service, often remaining unfilled for over six months.

Between Q1 and Q3 of 2024, the Jobstreet platform experienced more than tripled growth in retail industry job postings, reflecting the fast turnover and high demand for semi-skilled roles.

Additionally, the platform highlighted the top five most applied-for roles to be admin clerk, warehouse assistant, sales promoter, service crew, and facilities maintenance assistant.

Meanwhile, the top five most in-demand positions included admin clerk, sales promoter, general worker, technician, and service crew.

Looking ahead, Jobstreet forecasts advancements in technology will continue to reshape skill requirements, making digital literacy and adaptability critical for job seekers across industries.

Furthermore, ongoing government initiatives to support lower-wage workers will likely create more opportunities for upskilling and career advancement.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia