A swelling number of Singapore job seekers are showing interest in working for a startup, according to findings of a survey titled “Singapore's Employer of Choice Survey 2018” done by recruitment firm CareerBuilder.

About 69 percent of respondents are interested to join startups, which is up from 59 percent in 2016, and 68 percent in 2017. The prime reason for their interest to do so includes the apparent availability of learning opportunities (82 percent), followed by the ability to work closely with a group of passionate colleagues, and exposure to a slew of job roles.

For those who would not like to work in a startup, 78 percent cited the lack of job security compared to 61 percent which cited the relatively lower pay as a deterrent. Jobs in banking/finance/investment seem to have lost their sheen in 2018, dropping from first place in 2017 to fifth position last year. The most demanded jobs are in the healthcare and medical industry, followed by government and education and training.

 27.4 percent of respondents chose "$2,500-$2,999" as their expected salary range, compared to the 2017 expected salary range of $3,000 to $3,500.   

Remuneration stays vital to jobseekers as 88 percent of respondents cited that the top trait for an employer of choice is one that "offers attractive pay, bonuses and other monetary compensation". This is followed by a workplace that offers "good career growth and opportunities" and selected by 87.7 percent of respondents.

As of reasons why staff would change jobs, lack of career growth was cited by 66.1 percent of the respondents as the top stimulus, followed by unhappiness with superiors (44.9 percent) and "an unfriendly work culture" (43.7 percent).

The company announced that the top private employers of choice remained the same in 2018, with Google in top place for the fourth consecutive year.