Engineering career is definitely making a comeback. My friend worked as a project manager at a mobile development firm (they serve banks) recently hired app developers, one at 12k per month, another 7.5k per month, both demonstrated app development experience, both are FT. Mind you, this is not a bank.

The trouble with engineering career is that, government was too late to realize the importance (after multiple SMRT breakdowns, CPF portal downtime, difficulty at pushing local startup industry and smart nation initiative, then they finally realize). The damage of looking down on engineering career of local culture is already done. Many experienced engineers already switched careers or moved overseas.

Suddenly now there is a shortage of good engineers, where do you find 5-year, 8-year experience people? Either hire FT or wind up the biz. Local trained, experienced engineers are super rare. If you happened to be one, you can ask for 6k+ salary no issue, just need to find a good, revenue-making firm that is desperate at looking for local engineers. Because there is a quota of hiring FT, they need to hire one or two citizens or PR holders. That's your stake for salary negotiation.