There are at least 80 positions in so ware engineering alone. It is a far cry from the 300 so ware engineers the industry needs each year. But it is a good start. Conclusion Let me conclude. Our financial sector has shown that technology creates far more jobs than it displaces. During the last 5 years, the financial sector created 21,000 net jobs. We estimate that about 1 out of 4 of these net jobs were in technology. While Singaporeans took up 75% of the total net jobs, they accounted for only 35% of the tech jobs. There are simply not enough Singaporeans applying for tech roles. The problem is not jobs; it is skills. The financial sector is on track to create many good jobs in technology over the next few years. They present a great opportunity for Singaporeans – provided we acquire the skills necessary to take on these jobs. The answer does not lie in restricting the inflow of foreign tech expertise. On the contrary, it is by attracting the best tech talents from around the world that we can anchor new tech capabilities and functions that expand job opportunities for Singaporeans. The answer lies in individuals, financial institutions, and MAS working together to build strong skills in technology. We have been doing that, but we need to do much more. MAS looks forward to ideas and initiatives on what else we can do collectively to build up tech skills.
Many of the tech skills required to do the jobs I have described earlier are in short supply locally. We are fortunate that global and local financial institutions have invested heavily to build up strong technology teams in Singapore. Technology talents from abroad have brought with them valuable experience and expertise that we do not have enough of in Singapore. The surge in demand for technology jobs has benefitted Singaporean workers. The share of Singaporeans in tech jobs has remained stable at about 35% over the years. But with the rapid expansion of the technology workforce, it meant 2,200 more tech jobs for Singaporeans. This is a more than 30% increase in 5 years, from 6,700 jobs in 2014 to 8,900 jobs in 2019. Let us take a deeper dive into the various kinds of technology jobs. The proportion of Singaporeans taking on technology jobs is uneven across diﬀerent roles. Singaporeans account for 70% of the net job growth for cybersecurity engineers and UX/UI designers; and 50% of the net job growth for data analysts and data scientists. This is encouraging, given that these are in-demand roles. But these are also niche roles where hiring numbers are relatively small. The strongest demand - and biggest shortage in local skills - is for so ware engineers. In 2019, net job growth in so ware engineers was 200, 10 times more than that for UX/UI designers. Less than 20% of these 200 so ware engineer jobs went to Singaporeans.