Work It Podcast: Struggling to find a job? here's why

Latest data from LinkedIn shows that it is getting harder for job seekers and hirers to find the perfect match. What’s causing the frustration on both sides?

Sumita Tandon, HR director of APAC at LinkedIn gives Tiffany Ang and Gerald Tan her analysis. 

Here's an excerpt from the conversation: 

Sumita Tandon, HR director of APAC at LinkedIn:
What we are seeing is that nearly seven out of 10 people want to look for a new job, they're planning to look for a new job this year. But the response rate that they're hearing back from companies is much lower, which is leading to their frustration.

On the other side of the spectrum, it's the employers who are just not able to find that right balance of technical skills along with soft skills. And the landscape of the job market is changing so much and so quickly, which is leading to this frustration and this mismatch.  

Tiffany Ang, host: 
So what are employers specifically looking out for? You talk about the hard skills and soft skills, but are there certain skills specifically that they are looking for? 

Sumita:
What we are seeing is that this mismatch is partly driven by changes in the skills and the roles that the businesses need. So for example, globally, what we are seeing is that hiring for AI talent has surged more than 300 per cent globally over the last eight years. And in APAC, we are expecting skills to change by 70 per cent by 2030 due to Gen AI, compared to 52 per cent without it, this is a 18 percentage point faster pace of transformation. 

Now if you look at overall economic landscape as well, companies are wanting to balance some of their hiring plans and what we are sensing is that they will invest in technology in upskilling and reskilling their existing workforce versus prioritising headcount growth. So what that means is that headcount is going to remain relatively flat.

Tiffany Ang:
So you are saying that, rather than spend money on hiring more manpower, companies would try to put money into upskilling their existing workforce. 

Sumita:
Yes that's right.

So companies that will upskill and reskill their employees will also end up retaining their employees and I think that's where the focus is going to go, versus looking at incremental growth and more growth of headcount, the attention is going to shift towards employee retention and upskilling their existing workforce. 

Gerald Tan, host:
Well, that's good if you plan to stay. But if you are looking for a job and you are looking to move, then it really sounds like AI skills is a must have.

Editor’s Note: This podcast has been edited after LinkedIn clarified that one of the roles most in demand in Singapore is sustainability consultant, and not environment, health and safety manager.