Online hiring activity in Singapore climbed up by 16 percent in May, according to the most recent Monster Employment Index for Singapore released in June.

IT, telecommunications, business process outsourcing, and IT-enabled services industries saw a 42 percent increase in online hiring activity in May. At the same time, the BFSI sector saw a 27 percent rise in May. 

Software, hardware, and telecom job roles saw a steep rise in the hiring demand in May 2019. Almost about 28 percent increase Y-o-Y. However, real estate was one profession that saw a decline in online hiring demand with a 5 percent decrease, Y-o-Y. 

This index is a measure of online job posting activity as curated by Monster.com. It records the sectors, occupations and job roles that have shown the most and the least rise in hiring activity.It is an aggregate measure of rises and falls in the job listing across the talent acquisition space. 

Even though Singapore's online hiring activity has seen a sizable rise, it stills faces a talent crunch especially when it comes to matching the supply of talent with the demand. 

"While the demand for professionals with specific skill sets continues to rise, there is a shortage of adequately skilled talent to meet this," said Abhijeet Mukherjee, CEO of Monster.com, APAC and Middle East. "The government has stressed its strong focus on upskilling to help the workforce to stay competitive in the face of digital disruption." 

Maintaining a "healthy pipeline of qualified talent" is a crucial need of the hour to take Singapore's economy to the next level, added Mukherjee in a statement to People Matters.

Singapore has sped past Malaysia (which saw a Y-o-Y growth of 14 percent) and the Philippines (which saw a Y-oY rise of 17 percent in the region. 

Apart from a rise in the finance and accounts related job-roles that registered doubt-digit Y-o-Y growth of 17 percent and 25 percent in Singapore and the Philippines, the advertising, market research, public relations, media, and entertainment industry saw a 23 percent rise from 2018. 

Since 2018, the demand for healthcare professionals had not seen growth. However, for the first time in May, the demand increased by 8 percent Y-o-Y.