According to the Ministry of Manpower’s Labour Market Report, First Quarter 2019, Singapore’s labour market continued to hold steady even though the economy slowed.
Total employment, excluding foreign domestic workers, grew by 10,700 in the same period. The employment growth was due to seasonal factors and supported by the services sectors such as community, social and personal services, professional services, financial services and administrative and support services, among others.
In another key finding, more workers were retrenched in 1Q 2019 at 3,230 compared to the 2,510 in the previous quarter and 2,320 a year ago. One of the main reasons was business restructuring and reorganisation. Citizen unemployment rate also inched up slightly from 3.1 per cent in December 2018 to 3.2 per cent in March 2019.
The seasonally adjusted number of job vacancies declined from 62,300 in December 2018 to 57,000 in March 2019. This was the first decline after 7 consecutive quarters of increase. There also continued to be more job vacancies that job seekers, although there was a slight dip in the ratio of vacancies to unemployed persons from 1.10 in December 2018 to 1.08 in March 2019.
According to NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Patrick Tay, there is a need to continue to pay close attention to employment rate, labour productivity, long-term unemployment and workforce/training participation rate.
He added that the labour market is holding up in light of ongoing global shifts and synchronised slowdown coupled with local economic transformation and restructuring.
“We must be prepared for any economic uncertainties as well as structural challenges which will remain the two main challenges in 2019. While retrenchments have been, on a whole, lower in 2018, the figures in Q1 hint at retrenchments picking up.
“We need to continue to pay close watch to figures in the upcoming quarters and expect to see fluctuations from quarter to quarter, especially with the continued US-China trade tensions.
“As the labour market will continue to remain tight (with the recent round of foreign worker tightening measures), it is crucial for companies/employers to up-skill, re-skill and second-skill our workers so that they stay engaged, empowered, employed and employable,” he shared in a Facebook post.
