The labour market has continued to improve in the third quarter of 2021. However, advance estimates also indicate that recovery remained uneven across sectors.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) revealed the flash figures for the third quarter of this year on 29 October 2021.
The decline in total employment in the third quarter was significantly gentler than in the second quarter, due to a substantial local employment expansion.
Advance figures showed that total employment declined by 3,400 in the third quarter, as compared to the decline of 16,000 in the preceding quarter.
MOM attributed to the improvement to the quick growth of local employment. However, non-local employment continued to decline at a similar pace to the second quarter of 2021.
Sectors such as professional services, infocomms, and financial services continued to see resident employment expansion.
Meanwhile, F&B, retail trade, and accommodation had their resident workforce trimmed, reflecting ongoing COVID-19 border restrictions and safe management measures imposed in the third quarter.
Non-local employment continued to contract across most sectors in the third quarter of 2021.
The unemployment rates in Singapore have continued to ease steadily, since peaking a year ago in September 2020. However, they remained elevated compared to pre-pandemic rates.
The overall percentage of the unemployed dropped from 2.7 per cent to 2.6 per cent in September 2021.
Unemployment figures for resident unemployment rate dropped from 3.6 per cent to 3.5 per cent, and citizen unemployment rate dropped from 3.8 per cent to 3.7 per cent.
MOM added that it expects the final retrenchment numbers in the third quarter to remain low.
The estimated retrenchment figure for the third quarter stands at 2,000, which is less than a quarter of the 9,120-figure recorded in September 2020, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were 2,340 retrenchments seen in the second quarter of 2021. MOM added that it expects retrenchments to continue to fall.
With Singapore’s recent extension of its Stabilisation Phase till end-November 2021, the Government expects the mixed employment trends observed in the third quarter to continue into the fourth quarter 2021.
Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said that the figures show that Singapore’s labour market remained resilient despite the return to the Phase 2 Heightened Alert in July this year.
He added that there continues to be employment opportunities for residents, especially in the outward sectors such as professional services and financial services.
Mr Tan believes that the expansion of the Vaccinated Travel Lanes and travel-related activities can give sectors such as transport services a boost.
"It is encouraging to see the labour market improving from the impact of the pandemic in the third quarter of 2021. However, we should expect industries and job roles to also transform at an accelerated pace, and we must be prepared for these changes,” said Mr Tan.
The Government will release the final labour market figures for the third quarter in December.
In response to the figures, NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Desmond Choo wrote on Facebook that NTUC is concerned about how global demand and recovery will be affected in the next few months, with the world going into its second COVID-19 winter.
“NTUC will continue to work closely with our tripartite partners and key stakeholders to take care of all our workers through retraining and placement in recovering and resilient sectors because every worker matters,” he said.
