Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed below belong solely to the author. Data sourced from the Singapore Digital Economy Report published by IMDA last week.

Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority released its annual Digital Economy Report last week, providing data on the developments in the local tech industry—both directly in the Information & Communications sector and all the tech jobs outside of it.

This is an important distinction because many workers or future graduates may think their IT qualifications are best used in major technology companies. But in reality, the demand for their skills may be far greater elsewhere, effectively tripling their employment opportunities.

As you can see below, two-thirds of Singapore’s digital economy (and, therefore, jobs) is actually outside of the tech business.

In absolute numbers, the value added of the entire digital sector has grown by over 45% since 2021, to S$144 billion, and constitutes nearly one-fifth of Singapore’s economy:

This, of course, was followed by an increase in employment of nearly 30,000 people, including 8,200 last year alone.

What about the money?

You might have already noticed that there’s a bit of a mismatch here. If the total economic contribution of the digital sector went up by 45%, while headcounts increased by only 15%, it would suggest there is tremendous value here that workers could or even should partake in.

Even if we consider the cumulative inflation of 15% for years 2021 to 2025, it still leaves billions on the table. Fortunately, there is evidence that tech employees have gotten their share, with salaries increasing by 14% since 2023, hitting over S$9,300 in gross salaries, inclusive of employer CPF:

Source: Ministry of Manpower./ Estimates based on own calculations derived from IMDA figures.

This means that more than half of Singapore’s 222,000 tech workers earn S$100,000 per year or more.

Please note that the figures for the general population include bonuses, while the IMDA data for the tech workforce omits them. This means that the gap between the two is likely even larger, close to a factor of 2x.

Where are those jobs?

As I already mentioned, most of the jobs in tech are actually outside of the tech sector itself. Including new ones. Out of 8,200 added in 2025, only 1,700 were in the I&C sector. The remaining 6,500 were created in other industries.

While IMDA doesn’t share how many were added in each of them, it does break down the share of the value of the digital sector by industry, showing where all the money is (which may be a good proxy for where to look for jobs as well).

There are billions made in Finance, of course, but where else?

Surprisingly, perhaps, the next on the list is Wholesale Trade, likely because of the ongoing AI boom, which has made Singapore a crucial manufacturing and transit hub for AI-related tech products, raising demand for all the services that make it work smoothly.

Manufacturing itself is a distant third, followed by all other sectors. While they have a much smaller contribution individually, they do offer considerable diversity of options for tech workers.

The Information & Communications sector in Singapore might no longer be booming, growing at a very modest pace, but it does not mean that the labour market for tech workers is bleak.

On the contrary, as digitalisation spreads across the economy, other sectors need qualified IT staff—and are clearly willing to pay for their knowledge—defying the gloomy predictions that AI would soon render them redundant instead.

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.

Featured Image Credit: depositphotos/ man64