Income Level in S’pore Dropped by 0.6% in 2020; Fewer People Actively Searching for Jobs

It may have felt like a lifetime, but 2020 is coming to a close.

COVID-19 has definitely slowed things down for all of us. Be it in business, personal life and travels.

Previously, it was shown that income for Singaporeans from 2014 to 2019 had gone up.

The same cannot be said for this year.

Income Level in S’pore Dropped by 0.6% in 2020

Seemingly small numbers can have a big impact.

Income levels locally have fallen thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is according to an annual report by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on 3 Dec, which is based on data collected in June.

The nominal median income for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents dropped by 0.6 per cent to $4,534 over the year to June, down from $4,563 last year.

After taking inflation into account, real median income fell by 0.3 per cent, a reversal from the 2.2 per cent growth in the previous year.

Keep in mind this is for those in full-time employment, excluding employer contributions to CPF

The Real income at the 20th percentile also dropped by 4.5 per cent this, not including government payouts.

MOM said that this was because some industries were more badly affected by the pandemic having a high concentration of lower-income earners.

The Circuit Breaker contributed to this too.

Being unable to dine-in hurt several F&Bs while many others had to simply close during that period.

Taxi and private-hire drivers were also affected due to less local passengers and significantly fewer tourists as well.

And speaking of tours and travelling, we can’t forget how Singapore Airlines was hit by this as well.

Several thousand staff were retrenched and pilots who stayed had to take varying levels of pay cuts as well.

Employment rate By Age Group

It’s a little different for each one.

The group that saw the largest drop in employment were those aged 15 to 24, dropping by to 30.9%.

This was significantly lower than 33.9% in 2019.

MOM notes that it’s likely because industries that the age group usually works in, such as F&B and retail, were greatly affected by the pandemic.

Another contributing factor is that most in this group chose to further their education. This could also imply that fewer of them will be looking for jobs.

Which is actually a lot, considering these young people make up for about 6% of the resident workforce.

Those between 25 to 64 saw a dip from 80.9% last year to 80.3% this year.

The rate for men fell from 88.8 per cent to 87.9 per cent, the worst rate since 2004.

Employment rates for women also fell, but far less from 73.3 per cent to 73.2 per cent.

However, those aged 65 and above actually saw an increase in their employment rate, going up to 28.5% from 27.6% last year.

MOM credits this due to higher demand for essential services like cleaning and security.

Less Unemployment In Third Quarter

Keep in mind that this was from data collected in June.

There’s actually a separate report in October as well, ST reported.

Preliminary data for the labour market situation in the third quarter showed that resident employment rebounded and the speed of unemployment has slowed.

Some small good news, thankfully.

Manpower Minister Josephine Teo, however, said on Thursday that non-resident workers were more badly affected by unemployment.

In a recent update, the overall rate and the rate for citizens remained unchanged in October, at 3.6 per cent and 4.9 per cent respectively.

The rate for residents rose to 4.8 per cent, up from 4.7 per cent in September.

Record Number of People Not Looking For Jobs

In 2020, finding a job is no longer about finding the best job, but a job that can put food on your table.

One opening could lead to countless applications, and it appears that people are discouraged by that.

A record number of people weren’t actively looking for jobs because they think the search would be ‘”fruitless”; in total, there were 16,400 of these people in June 2020.

The previous record number of these “discouraged workers” was in 2009 when there were 11,100 of them.

Maybe it’s changed now, whether it’s because the market is a tad better now…or they realise food actually cost money.

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