1 in 2 companies claim the Singaporeans are choosy when it comes to work.

According to Achieve Group's Hiring Trends Report 2012, there has been much debate on the hiring of foreign talent instead of Singaporeans ever since the hot button issue surfaced during the General Elections in 2011. The government has since implemented a number of measures aimed at reducing the number of foreigners that companies can hire in order to encourage them to hire Singaporeans instead.

Here's more from Hiring Trends Report 2012:

In total, 236 companies reported difficulty in finding Singaporeans to fill positions. There were three main reasons for their predicament:

• The majority of 45% claim that ‘Singaporeans are too choosy’ when it comes to the nature of work, working conditions and hours, workplace location, etc.

• 23% of respondents said that ‘Singaporeans are demanding too high salaries’

• 20% of companies reported that they simply received ‘No response to job advertisements’

• The remaining 12% cited other reasons

More importantly, the report polled companies on the impact this talent crunch is having on their recruitment and human resource strategies– and what organisations are doing to address this issue. All the firms surveyed were given three workforce solutions to choose from and these are the findings:

• 19% of respondents reported a ‘Greater focus on talent retention strategies’ (e.g. employee engagement)

• 16% said they are ‘Increasing multi-tasking within the workforce’ by having existing employees take on additional portfolios

• 15% of companies stated that they are ‘Finding ways to increase productivity’ through measures such as business restructuring and automating processes

• The remaining half of participants’ (50%) reasons differed from those above