These professions are facing acute shortages of qualified workers
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed below belong to the author. The list comes from the Nov 2025 update of the shortage occupation list by Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower.
Every year in Nov, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) updates its Shortage Occupation List, which is a part of its Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS) used to evaluate skilled foreign candidates against the needs of Singapore’s labour market.
These are the strategically important jobs for which Singapore has an acute lack of talent, and expatriates can receive bonus points on their EP application if they are qualified to fill them.
Naturally, this means that these jobs are also very attractive to local Singaporeans, knowing that there is both high demand and insufficient domestic supply of candidates, which not only makes finding employment easier, but is also sure to pay well.
While the list hasn’t yet been updated on MOM’s site, it has already been published in its 2026 guidebook for employers, where you can explore the requirements in detail.
Shortage Occupation List for 2026
The list covers seven industries and 29 occupations—with alternative job titles listed below, whenever applicable (to make the job search for specific positions easier).
Agritech – the future of Singapore’s food supply
- Alternative protein food application scientist
- Novel food biotechnologist
Financial services – the backbone of the local economy
- Financial or Investment advisor (ultra-high/ high net worth/ family office/ philanthropy)
- Investment advisor
- Relationship manager
- Wealth planner
Green economy – carbon trading is becoming lucrative
- Carbon project/ programme manager
- Carbon programme manager
- Carbon project originator
- Carbon project manager
- Carbon standards & methodology analyst
- Carbon rating analyst
- Carbon standards & methodology developer
- Carbon trader
- Carbon verification & audit specialist
- Carbon auditor
Healthcare – addressing the needs of the ageing society
- Clinical psychologist
- Diagnostic radiographer
- Diagnostic radiographer
- Magnetic resonance imaging technologist
- Mammographer
- Medical diagnostic radiographer
- Radiologic technologist
- Occupational therapist
- Ergotherapist
- Occupational therapist
- Occupational therapist manager
- Occupational therapist researcher
- Physiotherapist
- Aquatic physiotherapist
- Clinical physiotherapist
- Physical therapist
- Physiotherapist
- Physiotherapist manager
- Physiotherapist researcher
- Sports physiotherapist
- Sports physical therapist
- Registered nurse
- Assistant director of nursing
- Assistant nurse clinician
- Chief nurse
- Clinic nurse
- Clinical nurse
- Deputy director of nursing
- Director of nursing
- Emergency nurse
- Industrial nurse
- Maternity nurse
- Nurse anaesthetist
- Nurse clinician
- Nurse educator
- Nurse manager
- Nurse midwife
- Matron (nursing)
- Obstetrics nurse
- Occupational health nurse
- Orthopaedic nurse
- Paediatric nurse
- Perioperative nurse
- Professional nurse
- Psychiatric nurse
- Public health nurse
- Registered nurse
- School nurse
- Sister (nursing)
- Staff nurse
- Podiatrist
- Medical Social Worker
- Psychiatric Social Worker
- Healthcare Social Worker
- Hospital Social Worker
- Palliative Care Social Worker
- Medical Social Worker
Infocomm technology – never too much talent in tech
- Artificial intelligence (AI) scientist/ researcher or engineer
- Applications/ systems programmer
- Analyst programmer
- Applications programmer
- Computer programmer
- Multimedia programmer
- Systems programmer
- Technical programmer
- Cloud architect/ engineer/ specialist
- Cybersecurity architect
- Cybersecurity engineer
- ICT security engineer/ architect
- Information systems security developer
- Data scientist
- Chief data scientist
- Data engineer
- Head of data analytics
- Digital forensics specialist
- Computer forensics expert
- Computer forensics investigator
- Cyber forensics expert
- Cyber forensics investigation specialist
- Cyber incident investigation specialist
- Cyber threat investigation specialist
- Digital forensic expert
- Digital forensics analyst
- ICT forensics expert
- Information forensics expert
- Penetration testing specialist
- Ethical hacker
- Exploitation analyst
- ICT security tester
- Network security tester
- Penetration testing specialist
- Security penetration tester/ testing manager
- System security tester
- Vulnerability analyst
- Software and applications manager (technical lead/supervisor)
- Application development manager
- Head of applications development
- Software and applications manager
- Software development manager
- Software developer
- Applications developer
- Blockchain architect/ developer/ engineer
- Computer software engineer
- Cryptography architect/ developer/ engineer
- Platform engineer
- Platform engineering manager
- Programmers and software development professional/ engineer
- Web and mobile applications developer
Maritime – another of Singapore’s critical sectors
- Marine superintendent
- Marine technical superintendent
- Marine/vessel manager
- Marine superintendent (engineer)
- Technical superintendent (marine)
Semiconductor – globally important in the age of AI
- Semiconductor engineer
- Semiconductor engineer
- Integrated circuit designer
- Microchip engineer
- Product engineer
- Test engineer
- Instrumentation and control engineer
- Process engineer
As you can see, the list covers sectors that are either fundamentally important to the country or the world.
Singapore’s role as a financial centre should keep it attractive to the best people for years. Similarly, the nation’s maritime sector is second to none in the region, even if it’s facing envy and competition from the city’s neighbours. Meanwhile, its ageing society is in need of ever more staff—especially in support services like nursing.
Globally, Singapore is certainly eyeing a piece of the carbon trading pie, potentially worth billions of dollars, while remaining a tech hub in both software development as well as hardware manufacturing.
Even if others in the IT industry are struggling, as it has faced repeated layoffs in recent years, Singapore’s position is unlikely to be shaken, as it is an essential node for big tech businesses in Asia. While some workers may be affected by turmoil at their companies, there is enough local demand for their skills to prevent them from going jobless for too long.
If you’re looking for a career with a strong future potential, aim for areas that Singapore depends on (finance, logistics) or those that are its critical vulnerabilities (like dependence on imports for food and population ageing). The only other alternative path is technology—with emphasis on AI (so you don’t get left behind) and cybersecurity, as both criminals and entire governments are waging their wars on the Internet these days.
- Read other articles we’ve written on job trends here.
Also Read: S’pore has highest involuntary turnover rate in SEA; pay hikes in 2026 to remain at 4.3%
Featured Image Credit: toapayohvets/ Shutterstock.com
Last modified: November 13, 2025
About the Author: Chris Peters
