Many people are contemplating of leaving Singapore not just for travel but to seek for more profitable jobs as well. Many people consider Singapore because of its favourable working condition. You see many foreign workers here and that will show that there are lots of opportunities – it is yours for the taking.

However, there is a recent survey that begs to disagree. While there are many migrant workers here, most of Singaporeans are considering working overseas. A poll was conducted by Hays, a recruiting firm. It found out that 85% of job-seekers said that they are willing to relocate for better job opportunities or career development while 12% will leave for lifestyle and the remaining 3% would never consider leaving.

Hays polled 2,553 respondents looking for jobs from here to Malaysia, Japan, China and Hong Kong. A whopping 97% of these jobseekers said they will leave the city to work abroad. You cannot blame the population for thinking of looking for greener pastures considering that the economy is taxing and life is getting more difficult. Prices are high, housing is expensive and education is costly.

However, in the case of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), deploying local stags to relocate overseas seems uphill. SMEs have problems with deploying workers overseas. Take the 2014 Development SME Survey. It revealed that 23% of SMEs admitted shortage of manpower to drive sales overseas. 23% was a big jump from 7% in 2013.

This goes to show that less and less people are thinking of moving for SMEs. According to the survey, the problem is with the mindset of people. People would relocate willingly if it is jobs from multinational corporations but when it comes to SMEs, they are adamant. Another factor why they are adamant is the length of stay. If it is for few days or months, it is acceptable since you can just think that it is for exposure.

However if it last for more than a year, you will become doubtful whether you still have a job when you get back. With this, SMEs should be clear from the beginning especially with the policies about overseas pay packages. This is to entice more locals to consider deployment overseas for the SMEs.

Hays concluded that the city has the most mobile workforce in Asia followed by China and Hong Kong. Local talents consider overseas in the hopes of gaining high value international experience. Job-seekers realized that employers give importance to local talents with international experience.