Median salary for S’pore tech workers hits S$9,000 as IMDA lists 20 skills in highest demand

Disclaimer: Except in any other case said, any opinions expressed under belong solely to the creator. Knowledge sourced from the Singapore Digital Economic system Report printed by IMDA.

Singapore’s Infocomm Media Growth Authority has simply launched its annual report on the state of nation’s digital economic system, which additionally contains attention-grabbing insights in regards to the job market state of affairs for tech staff within the nation.

An trade value S$128 billion

The share of Info & Communications sector in Singapore’s GDP has elevated to 18.6%, for a complete worth of S$128 billion in 2024. Two thirds of it, nonetheless, doesn’t come from the tech sector itself, however from technology-driven companies which can be used throughout all different branches of the economic system.

For that purpose, in case you’re a younger techie with formidable profession plans, it’s your decision to remember that IT corporations should not the be-all and end-all, and there’s various work that must be executed in digitalisation processes of different companies.

You possibly can see how these alternatives have blossomed within the sectors catching up on deploying tech of their companies lately, and the worth added it has generated:

Related developments will be seen in employment, the place tech corporations are accountable for far fewer new jobs coming to the market every year. The speed at which tech employment grows in Non I&C corporations was virtually 4 instances increased than for specialised enterprise.

It has additionally surpassed it in whole variety of tech workers:

Median salaries hit S$9000

Inclusive of employer CPF, median gross salaries for tech staff have crossed the S$9,000 mark, considerably increased than the S$5,500 median for the complete inhabitants. Since gross figures are often offered within the information media, I’m exhibiting them right here first, for ease of comparability.

On a extra relatable foundation, excluding employer’s contributions, which staff by no means actually see, median wages in I&C nonetheless got here near S$8,000, after a robust 13.5% soar on a year-on-year foundation.

These figures, thoughts you, should not only for tech corporations in fact, however for all staff in Info & Communications. As you’ll be able to see, it’s not solely a profession that pays very effectively in Singapore however one which outpaces different professions in several sectors. Everyone wants tech workers.

That mentioned, not all jobs in tech are created equal, and there have been many developments within the sector over the previous few years as priorities change and new expertise are prized above others.

Knowledge analytics & AI up, internet improvement down

In line with the report, expertise related to knowledge analytics, machine studying or AI have been on the rise—each when it comes to the tempo of change in addition to their general share in all jobs obtainable:

“Programming languages similar to Python and SQL have been the among the many extra extremely sought-after tech expertise up to now 5 years. In 2024, 24% of all tech job postings required Python (a rise of 9 share factors from 2019), whereas SQL was required in 20% of tech job postings (a rise of 5 share factors). The robust demand is probably going a mirrored image of the applicability of those expertise throughout a variety of features, similar to knowledge analytics, automated workflows, and improvement of machine studying fashions.”

Cloud and digital infrastructure are seeing an analogous enhance, as corporations are transferring extra companies off premises to devoted knowledge centres. Therefore the regular demand for AWS or Azure specialists.

“Consistent with this transition to a cloud-native surroundings, employers are more and more in search of tech professionals who’re proficient in expertise related to containerisation (e.g., Docker), orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes), in addition to automation (e.g., Ansible, Jenkins). These expertise which allow the versatile, transportable, and automatic deployment of purposes inside cloud environments, have grow to be extra essential as companies search to scale their digital companies extra effectively.”

In the meantime, every part related to the net has been fairly stagnant.

JavaScript has registered the largest drop of all—exhibiting up in 12% of job postings in comparison with 21% simply 5 years in the past. Consistent with this, expertise in HTML, PHP, JQuery, Ajax in addition to cell platforms of Android and iOS look like fairly saturated, dropping in prominence over time.

For those who have been pondering of a profession in internet or cell improvement, then maybe it’s not too late to rethink your selections. Not solely are you going to see fewer employment alternatives, however their quantity is trending downwards as effectively.

In whole, there are expertise in 20 totally different areas that fall above the horizontal line, exhibiting rising demand amongst employers since 2019:

Python

Microsoft Azure

Amazon Net Companies

Kubernetes

SQL

Docker

API

Energy BI

Linux

Terraform

JIRA

Git

React.js

Typescript

Go

Ansible

Jenkins

Postgre SQL

Java

Google Cloud Platform

Proficiency in JavaScript is, in fact, nonetheless a extremely wanted talent, so you shouldn’t utterly ignore it, even after it slid within the ranks. The remainder of these within the backside a part of the chart, nonetheless, may require some consideration particularly as AI instruments are already consuming into human jobs there.

Nonetheless, regardless of the AI revolution and layoffs that hit corporations world wide, each employment in tech and salaries paid to certified staff preserve going up in Singapore—and it doesn’t look like these developments are underneath risk.

Learn different articles we’ve written on Singapore’s job panorama right here.

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