Singapore’s employment rate for the first quarter of 2020 has seen the biggest decline to date and there’s worse to come.
According to the Ministry of Manpower, the number of people working, excluding maids, fell by 25,600 as at end-March.
The job market has clearly taken a turn for the worse amid the economic uncertainty brought about by COVID-19.
Despite this grim outlook, the OCBC Group announced today (June 15) that it will be hiring more than 3,000 people in Singapore this year to provide opportunities for fresh graduates and other job-seekers.
This move follows an earlier pledge in March that the OCBC Group will not layoff any of its 30,000 employees worldwide as a result of the pandemic.
Hiring Across Various Roles
Of the 3,000 new jobs, more than 2,100 are full-time roles across various entities of the OCBC Group such as OCBC Bank and its wholly-owned subsidiaries Bank of Singapore and OCBC Securities Pte Ltd, as well as its 88%-owned insurance arm, Great Eastern Holdings.
The 2,100 new full-time positions represent about 19% of the Group’s current workforce of about 11,000 employees in Singapore.
The roles to be filled are in areas such as wealth management, corporate banking, risk management, data analytics, operations and technology.
The crisis has accelerated digitalisation worldwide and there has been a sharp increase in the number of OCBC customers accessing the various digital channels and solutions.
To continue to enable the roll-out of a wide range of digital solutions for both customers and employees, OCBC will also be hiring more technology related roles on top of reskilling and upskilling in digital capabilities and knowledge among its current employees.
The Group will also continue to hire and nurture fresh graduates through graduate programmes such as the OCBC Graduate Talent Programme and the Great Eastern Corporate Management Associate Programme.
During these customised 24-month programmes, Graduate Talents will go through corporate training to equip themselves with broad-based banking and insurance knowledge and personalised job rotations in various functions to obtain on-the-job exposure to relevant banking and insurance operations to prepare them for their roles.
Nurturing Talents
The remaining 900 roles are a combination of traineeship and internship positions.
OCBC will offer more than 500 traineeship positions to university and polytechnic graduates under the SGUnited Traineeships Programme in areas such as corporate banking, data and technology.
Another 400 internship positions will be made available to university and polytechnic students to provide insights into the banking and insurance industry to help prepare them for the workforce.
On top of that, OCBC will continue to offer traineeship positions through the Technology in Finance Immersion Programme (TFIP) to help jobseekers who are looking for a career switch in new technology areas such as Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, and Full Stack Development, within the financial services sector.
“We are committed to helping Singaporeans ride out this extremely difficult period. By creating and protecting jobs, we contribute towards boosting disposable incomes and consumer confidence. Both are much needed to reignite the economy,” said Group Chief Executive Officer Samuel Tsien.
“We will offer internships, traineeships and graduate talent programmes, and continue to work with various partners and government bodies to ensure that those new to the workforce can gain a strong foundation through these programmes.”
Featured Image Credit: AFP
