As of end 2008, employment in Singapore stands at almost 2.96 million. The main employers in Singapore are in the services industry (67.3 percent), followed by manufacturing (19.8 percent) and construction (12.2 percent).

The Singapore government openly makes known the type of expatriates / manpower (sometimes known as 'global talent') they seek to work in Singapore. The 'growth industries' identified are (1) Banking and Finance, (2) Biomedical Science, (3) Chemical, (4) Electronics and Precision Engineering, (5) Healthcare, (6) Info-communications technology, (7) Interactive digital media, (8) legal, (9) maritime services and (10) tourism. To find out more about the opportunities available in the Singapore job market, you may wish to refer to the Ministry of Manpower's report on Labor Market Highlights. For more information about the type of companies based in Singapore that are on the lookout for global talent, refer to Expat Focus' City Guide on Singapore.

Expatriates interested to find employment in Singapore, or expatriates who are already in Singapore and looking for alternative employment in Singapore, should check out Contact Singapore's website at www.contactsingapore.sg. Contact Singapore is a government agency that aims to attract global talent to live, work and invest in Singapore.

There are many ways to find a job in Singapore. If you are currently living outside Singapore, the best source would be the internet. There are many internet-based employment / recruitment agencies and executive search agencies that can help you. In you are residing in Singapore, there are job listings for both permanent and non-permanent, part-time and full-time jobs listed every day in the classifieds of the major newspapers (The Straits Times and The New Paper). For executive positions, the Saturday edition of the classifieds in the 'Recruit' section of The Straits Times is a good place to start. Alternatively, Contact Singapore organizes events such as career fairs in various cities around the world. For more information about the events organized by Contact Singapore, click here.

Accompanying spouses of expatriates on a Dependent Pass (DP) who wish to work in Singapore must obtain a Letter of Consent (LOC) from the Ministry of Manpower. The employer is expected to apply for this letter on behalf of the employee – in practice, some local companies / HR departments might not be familiar with this practice (especially for companies that do not hire many foreigners), so expatriates on a DP would want to be clear about these guidelines. Obtaining a LOC is not difficult. 80 percent of all requests are processed within one week. Better yet, if employers made the request online, approval is immediate. If the DP expires, the LOC must be renewed if the expatriate wishes to continue working in Singapore. As DPs are dependent on the validity of the spouses' Employment Pass (EP), so are LOCs.

For more information about Employment Rights and The Employment Act of Singapore, refer to the Ministry of Manpower website.