The past year and a half have probably been bad for many people.
Okay, “bad” might be an understatement.
Having to deal with drops in salary, the possibility of losing your job, taking care of kids while working, worrying about your health and the paranoia of getting COVID-19—I can name a billion other things.
Hell might be a better word to describe everything that went down.
But finally, it seems like things are starting to look up.
As the saying goes: there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.
S’pore Labour Market in Recovery
On Thursday (17 June), a report released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) showed that the recovery of Singapore’s labour market had continued in the first quarter of this year.
In fact, total employment grew for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hallelujah!
Statistics provided by MOM showed that after four consecutive quarters of decline, the total employment—excluding foreign domestic workers—rose by 12,200 in the first three months of the year. This rise of 12,200 far surpasses the preliminary estimate of 4,800 that had been announced in April.
The report also showed that resident hires continued to rise, outpacing the decline in non-resident employment.
However, this rise is partly due to the restrictions on the inflow of foreign workers. These restrictions contributed partly to the broad hiring of residents in the service sectors, such as information and communications, food and beverage, health and social services, and administrative and support services.
Retrenchments also fell for the second consecutive quarter, back to pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, the re-entry rate of retrenched residents into employment rose for two consecutive quarters to 66.2%.
According to MOM, the number of workers placed on shorter work weeks or temporary layoffs also declined. The number fell from 8,710 in the fourth quarter of 2020 to 4,020 in the first quarter of this year.
Finally, the number of job vacancies rose to 68,400 in March, surpassing the previous peak of 65,500 back in March 2015—meaning, there are more jobs for the unemployed!
Indeed, the ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons has improved, increasing from a ratio of 0.75 in December last year to 0.96 in March this year. The new ratio means that there is nearly one job vacancy for every unemployed person.
Recovery Not Complete, Will Not be an Easy Road
Despite the good news, MOM says that the labour market is still not fully back to its pre-pandemic state.
Additionally, the pace of labour market recovery in the second quarter is expected to be weighed down by uncertainties in the economy and the recent tightening of measures during phase two (heightened alert).
Singapore’s path to recovery “will not be a straight road”, and will entail some unexpected changes and potential roadblocks, says Manpower Minister Tan See Leng.
“Recovery is also expected to be more uneven across sectors than earlier expected,” added Dr Tan when speaking to the media on Wednesday (16 June), after his visit to the Procter & Gamble Singapore Innovation Centre at Biopolis.
Unemployment rates continued to ease, dropping to 2.9% for the overall workforce, 4.2% for citizens and 4% for residents in March this year—an improvement after they had peaked in September last year at 3.5% for the overall workforce, 4.9% for citizens and 4.8% for residents.
However, these improved unemployment rates are still higher than pre-pandemic unemployment levels.
Decline in Foreign Employment Growth Likely to Continue
MOM said that the decline in foreign employment growth is likely to continue, given that border restrictions have yet to be lifted. This would mean that labour shortages in sectors like construction are likely to occur.
In order to help construction companies cope with the current shortage in manpower, the Government has rolled out a temporary scheme to make it easier to recruit workers from China. This is because the COVID-19 situation is more stable there, and fewer restrictions are in force.
With this scheme, Chinese work permit holders are now allowed to get their skills certification in Singapore instead. Previously, they usually got certified by overseas training centres in China.
Other schemes that enable employers to access a wider pool of talent have also been introduced by the Government. These include career conversion programmes, as well as the Jobs Growth Incentive, which encourages employers to bring forward the hiring of local workers through wage subsidies.
Businesses here in Singapore have to innovate, from digitalisation to developing niche capabilities, said Dr Tan. “As businesses transform, the workforce must be reskilled and upskilled to keep pace with the changing needs,” he said.
Featured Image: Miguel Vidal/ Shutterstock.com
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