job vacancies

While I am very much employed, I think it doesn't harm to know more about how the job market is like. I chanced upon the Job Vacancies, 2009 by the Ministry of Manpower's Manpower Research and Statistics Department and find it quite informative, especially for job seekers out there. It shows the job market trend, which sectors are hiring, which positions are unfilled, what qualifications do they need, etc.

Some of the numbers caught my eyes. Firstly the number of vacancies. In 2009 they had 330 slots for software engineers, 140 for mechanical, 100 for electronics and 100 for computer engineers. For teaching they had 2760 slots which was quite openly reported by the media. However when I looked at the column "Gross Wage($)", it says that the 25th percentile for mechanical engineers is 3148. Entry level most probably can't hit that much, since I was actively job-seeking in 2009 so I know, but I also know of some mechanical engineers who have been working for years but still can't hit the 3k mark. On the other hand, Ministry of Education is quite transparent with regards to the salary of teachers, and again it isn't quite the same as the number in the report ($3412 for 25th percentile)

*shrug* I'm not here to question the report.