While the manufacturing sector has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said that it remains a "significant engine" of Singapore's economy.

MOM has released a Jobs Situation report on Aug. 26 which said that the manufacturing sector contributes about 20 per cent to the country's GDP and employs about 472,000 workers.

The agency has also introduced initiatives to help enhance the industry's competitiveness and highlighted job opportunities in other sub-sectors.

Initiatives to help the manufacturing sector

Some transformation initiatives put in place to sharpen the manufacturing competitiveness include:

• efforts to establish a strong base of leading technology and solutions providers to promote Industry 4.0 adoption
• committing to invest S$3.2 billion in R&D in Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering to build up innovation capacity of companies embarking on Industry 4.0
• developing local talents through a nationwide series of modular courses

According to MOM, about 1,000 manufacturing companies have come onboard SGUnited Jobs and Skills programmes, offering over 6,300 jobs, traineeship and attachment, as well as training opportunities to local jobseekers.

More than 730 jobseekers have entered the manufacturing sector with support from the SGUnited Jobs and Skills programmes between April 2020 and June 2020.

About 62 per cent were mid-career individuals.

In addition, fresh and recent graduates can also enter the sector through the SGUnited Traineeships Programme.

The top hiring roles in manufacturing are, according to MOM:

• engineering professionals
• electronics engineers
• manufacturing engineering technicians
• production clerks
• administrative professionals or associates

The median salaries for these jobs range from S$1,500 to S$4,700.

Biomedical science sub-sector

One of the manufacturing sub-sectors, however, remains a "bright spot", MOM said.

From January to June 2020, output in the biomedical manufacturing cluster grew 26.7 per cent, compared to the same period in 2019, as there was a higher production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and biological products in the pharmaceuticals segment.

MOM also stated that Singapore is a leading location for "best-in-class" biomedical science manufacturing plants.

To date, there are about 400 opportunities offered by more than 50 companies in the biomedical science sector under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package.

The available roles include:

• Biotechnologist
• Production Manager (Cell & Gene Therapy)
• Automation Engineers
• Chemist
• Validation Specialists
• Quality Assurance Managers
• Microbiologists

About 75 per cent of these roles remain unfilled.

Assisting more jobseekers

To also better support job seekers in general, MOM, WSG and other partners have expanded their offerings, which include:

• setting up 24 SGUnited Jobs & Skills Centres across all HDB towns
• growing a pool of career advisors to complement WSG's team of full-time career coaches
• enhancing digital career matching services to reach out to jobseekers during the circuit breaker

36,400 jobseekers received basic career advisory or job search assistance through WSG and NTUC-e2i’s career matching services from January to July 2020.

This is 30 per cent more than the same period in 2019, despite circuit breaker restrictions.

22,700 of them received individualised career coaching, which is 20 per cent more than the same period in 2019.

WSG also placed a total of around 19,000 jobseekers from January to June 2020.

This is about 15 per cent more than the same period in 2019.

MOM added in its report:

"With the completed rollout of all 24 satellite SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres island-wide helping to increase touchpoints for jobseekers as part of the overall implementation of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, the Government is fully committed to walk the journey with our businesses and jobseekers, providing guidance and support along every step of the way to help them bounce back quickly and stronger than ever."

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Top image from MOM/Facebook.