Employment Resilience is the Way to Future-proof your Career
Speaking at a citizen’s panel discussion on employment resilience in February 2023, Manpower Minister Tee See Leng said: “In an increasingly uncertain and volatile world, the risk of displacement and involuntary unemployment is very real.” (Teo, J., 2023) And currently in 2023, tech jobs feel like they are vanishing quicker than ever. Google’s parent company Alphabet recently laid off 12,000 workers, equivalent to 12% of its workforce. (Philips, W.G., 2023) What was seemingly a promising industry to be in, turned into mass layoffs with close to 218,500 job cuts reported. (Yosifova, A., 2023) But, it’s not just the tech firms, with the Covid-19 hit in 2020, resident employment rates jumped from below 3% to 4.9% in October that year – representing an increase of a shocking 42,000 unemployed residents from the onset of the pandemic.
What are your greatest worries in your career?
From a survey done by PwC in 2021, 50% of Singapore workers think their job would likely be obsolete within five years – a more pessimistic view compared to 39% globally. (PwC, 2021)
- 65% are worried that automation is putting many jobs at risk
- 64% think few people will have stable, long-term employment in the future
- 63% feel that their government should act to protect jobs, with that feeling being most acute among 25-34 year olds (67%)
- 50% think it’s likely that their job will be obsolete within five years
Currently, the Singapore government is gathering feedback on how to better help Singaporeans adapt and protect their careers. – to take ownership of their careers, give them understanding and insights into how global and industry trends are evolving, and how employees can continue to stay relevant. There will be another panel on employment resilience with participants meeting over 4 separate sessions to offer recommendations on methods to strengthen employment resilience. Final proposals will be presented to the government during the final session on March 25, 2023.
News Links on Employment Resilience:
- Improving career resilience and management in Singapore:
https://hrmasia.com/improving-career-resilience-and-management-in-singapore/
- Governments to get policy making ideas from citizens’ panel to improve employment resilience:
How does up-skilling/re-skilling ourselves make us more employment resilient?
Taking the right re-skilling and up-skilling strategy makes you more agile professionally and sets you up for more opportunities with the up-to-date skills that are relevant to take on new job scopes and opportunities.
At Citadel Search, we find that candidates who have made special efforts in upgrading themselves tend to be considered more favourably by our clients (the employers). Anecdotally, Mr X has been in the Supply Chain domain for more than 15 years. However, he has taken on additional certifications like data analytics. He thus stood out amongst the sea of applicants as he had made himself more employment resilient.
But it’s not just Mr X, Miss Y who is also in the HR profession made herself more relevant to the industry when she up-skilled herself after 20 years in the industry by going to the domain institution to shore up her skills with two additional certificates. She then shared with Citadel Search that getting those additional certificates was vital to stay relevant in the industry. And what is more, she is using these newly attained skills to coach others in her organisation!
Developing career resilience is now more important than ever, and as candidates, let us de-shackle the chains of sluggishness and apathy. Be open to pick up more skills and face the reality of being employment resilient.
While researching an industry that you might be keen to venture into, you might realise that you lack necessary skill sets required. Fret not, there are many courses available online to add to your repertoire. These courses don’t have to be long ones – in fact, there are already many courses available on sites like Coursera and Udemy.
Useful links to make yourself employment resilient:
- Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/
- Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/
- Microsoft Learn: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/
- LinkedIn Learning: https://learning.linkedin.com/
- Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/expertise/students/
Singaporeans are blessed with SkillsFuture, a national movement to provide us with the opportunities to develop their fullest potential throughout life, regardless of their starting points. With the help of the Future Economy Council, education and training providers, employers, unions – you can own a better future with skills mastery and lifelong learning.
We should not wait until the risk of unemployment hits before we start thinking about career planning. Citadel Search encourages you to take active steps to take charge of your career!
Stay Connected , Stay Engaged!
Taking charge of your career is easy:
- 5 Steps to take charge of your career: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-steps-take-charge-your-career-saloni-sachdev/
- 9 Ways To Take Charge Of Your Career And Be A Leader: https://sheroes.com/articles/take-charge-of-your-career/MTY4MTM=