Job vacancies in Singapore may have been at a 6-year high last year, but looks like things sure have changed now.

The number of job vacancies have in fact, declined over the year to 60,000 in September 2015 amid softer economic conditions.

When seasonally adjusted, the ratio between the job vacancies and unemployed have also declined from 121 in June and 143 in March 2015, to 116 openings per 100 job seekers in September 2015.

This was according to the latest Job Vacancy report released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

Declines were seen across all occupational groups.

However, vacancies remained available across the board. Though slightly lower than a year ago (41%),  39% of vacancies in September 2015 were found to be unfilled for six months or more.

While non-PMET job vacancies were generally harder to fill (55%), hiring managers also faced difficulty in filling up PMET openings with 20% of PMET openings  being unfilled for extended periods.

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The top ten PMET occupations with the highest number of vacancies unfilled for at least six months were:

1. Enrolled/assistant nurse (excluding registered nurse) (420)
2. Commercial & marketing sales (240)
3. Executive registered nurse & other nursing professional (210)
4. Chef (160)
5. Restaurant manager (150)
6. Software, web & multimedia developer (140)
7. Management executive (130)
8. Operations officer (except transport operations) (120)
9. Financial/ investment advisor (110)
10. Sales & marketing manager (100)

In line with the government’s efforts to have a stronger “Singaporean core” workforce, the report also indicated the top ten PMET occupations with the highest number of vacancies hard to fill by locals.

These occupations were:
1. Commercial & marketing sales executive (450)
2. Software, web & multimedia developer (430)
3. Enrolled/ assistant nurse (excluding registered nurse) (420)
4. Management executive (340)
5. Registered nurse & other nursing professional (330)
6. Operations officer (except transport operations) (300)
7. Mechanical engineering technician (300)
8. Electronics engineer (260)
9. Systems analyst (230)
10. Civil engineer (220)

Employers indicated that common reasons for these hard-to-fill PMET vacancies included unattractive pay and the lack of necessary experience.

READ MORE: The highest paying sectors in Singapore this year

Check out the tables below for more details.

Image: Shutterstock