By Keith Lin

BECOME an engineer in the manufacturing sector and you can expect, on average, a starting pay of $4,000 a month.

While a less princely sum may await you if you are less qualified, the sweet news is you can pick and choose from a long list of vacancies in a wide variety of jobs, according to a new online career guide.

Produced by the Government, it has been praised by headhunters like Ms Annie Yap as a one-of-a-kind comprehensive guide.

The 35-page guide, called Labour Market Highlights, identifies specific jobs and how much they pay, as well as the specific skills or qualifications that each requires.

Targeted at adult job-seekers, the guide also uses colour codes to indicate the chances of getting hired for a particular job.

It is updated whenever new information is available from surveys like the annual wage survey that is conducted by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

Job-seekers would not be the only group that will find it useful, said Ms Yap, chief executive officer of human resources consultancy GMP.

'Employers, too, can also refer to it when deciding how much to pay their staff to retain them,'' she added.

The guide, available at www.mom.gov.sg, is produced by MOM and the Workforce Development Agency as part of the Government's effort to ease the labour crunch by opening the eyes of job-seekers to a wider range of job opportunities.

It was launched by Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong yesterday, and is one of two guides the Government has produced this year to help job-seekers chart their careers.

The other, introduced in February, is Career Compass for students. Also available online, it is to help them better understand the job market so that they can pursue the appropriate courses.

The latest publication lists more than 120 executive and rank-and-file jobs in 11 sectors such as construction, retail and logistics.

Each job shows the number of vacancies, with colour codes depicting the extent of the demand.

For instance, hot jobs, like technicians in the construction industry, have a blazing-red circle next to it.

Next in line are jobs in high demand, shown with a yellow sign, and those in average demand, in green.

The guide also gives a broad overview for each sector, describing the industry outlook and estimated number of jobs it will create in the years ahead.

The making of Mother's Day Card