For those lucky enough, this period is typically the time for receiving your year-end bonuses.

And for some, the annual review and increment are also taken as signs of whether to stay in their company, or move on to greener pastures.

However, with the looming economic uncertainties and reported job cuts, we wondered — where are people's heads at this year?

AsiaOne polled 1,123 working Singaporeans from Singapore from Nov 3 to 25 to find out if they intend to quit their jobs after receiving their next bonuses.

As it turns out, some 74 per cent of respondents have given at least thought about looking for another job, with 18.8 per cent of them seriously considering their options.

17.7 per cent of total respondents revealed that they are actively on the job hunt while 3.2 per cent have already secured their next positions.

Not just about the pay

What would attract them to make the switch though, is not always so clear cut.

Given a choice of multiple responses, survey participants listed an average of two to three factors that they would look out for in their next job.

And it appears that for non-university graduates, other things mattered more than their pay check.

Non-university graduates were more likely to say that they looked for "better work-life balance" (43.4 per cent) than "better compensation and benefits" (38.3 per cent).

University graduates, however, were 13.7 per cent more likely than others to cite "better compensation and benefits" when considering their next move.

The results seem to echo another poll which AsiaOne conducted in August this year, where 60.6 per cent of respondents in our survey shared that having "work-life balance" is what motivates them to choose a job and stay in it, compared to 54.2 per cent who indicated "compensation and benefits" as key factors.

But overall, better compensation and benefits" (46.7 per cent) and "better work-life balance" (44.5 per cent) were still the two most commonly cited as factors that respondents looked out for when looking to change their jobs.

Non-university graduates more optimistic about job market

And what about their outlook on the job market?

Perceptions were mixed, with 43.2 per cent of respondents disagreeing that there were many job opportunities in the market. Some 20.7 per cent of them were neutral and 36.2 per cent believed that job opportunities are still abundant.

Our survey also found non-university graduates to be slightly more optimistic than university grads, with 38.6 per cent of them more likely to say that they see "many opportunities in the job market", compared to 33.9 per cent of university graduates.

Respondents who were self-employed, C-suite staff, or in senior management were also 5.8 per cent more likely than those in other positions to hold a more positive outlook.

'Companies might cut the budget'

Information Technology (IT) manager Lennert Yang, 40, was among those who expressed agreement that "there are many job opportunities in the market". 

The polytechnic graduate shared with AsiaOne that he had received "five to six job offers" in 2022 alone, which he believes is due to the specific sector (IT service delivery and project management) which he's in.

"There are indeed many job opportunities in the IT industry across junior to senior roles," said Yang, clarifying that the IT industry is "no longer generic" and spans several fields.

Yang shared his view that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, organisations needed "scalability and modular solutions in order to let staff WFH effectively", which accounted for the rise in the number of jobs.

But with everything moving "back to normal", he doesn't discount the fact that "companies might cut the budget for such services as they might be deemed optional".

The survey also found that more than half (53.1 per cent) of those in the 'accommodation and food service' industries expressed optimism in the job market.

The optimism perhaps reflects the shortage of labour in the sector, shared Edmund Chua, AsiaOne's head of Consumer Insights and Analytics Office, which could possibly account for the observation that more eateries have put up job ads in recent times.

Workers pessimistic about job market

Comparing respondents' mindsets in terms of the industries they are in, it appeared that those employed in the real estate sector were 17.7 per cent less likely to agree that there were many job opportunities.

This could perhaps be seen as surprising, considering how robust the sector has been with property prices and demand skyrocketing this year.

Workers in the transportation and storage sector, too, held a more pessimistic view of the job market, with 11.9 per cent less likely to agree that there were many opportunities.

Not surprisingly, those working in these two sectors were also the ones most likely to seriously consider switching jobs.

Chua also gave some insights on the general results of the survey, adding that the overall pessimism in the job market reflects the public sentiment on the prospect of a recession in 2023.

"While we can broadly say that the Singapore workforce is pessimistic about the outlook of the job market, the actual outlook across sectors can vary significantly," he said.

"Bucking the general trend are sectors like healthcare and F&B where optimism is high, possibly due to a shortage of manpower."

Chua added that industries including healthcare and F&B had been forced to adapt to the shortage of foreign workers these past few years during the pandemic.

"It would be interesting to observe, especially in the upcoming Budget, if the government would allow these industries to have access to the same supply of foreign labour in the coming years".

ALSO READ: 1 in 3 Singapore employees can 'live without WFH', men more likely than women to say so: AsiaOne survey

candicecai@asiaone.com

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