Unemployment Rates in S’pore Fall for 4th Consecutive Month in Feb 2021 as Economy Continues to Recover

By
Ashley Seek
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COVID-19 ruined a lot of people’s 2020, and many possibly still feel the effects now.

In fact, for Singapore, last year saw our sharpest decline in employment rates in 20 years.

September last year was among the worst periods, seeing as that when unemployment peaked.

Retrenched resident workers also needed a longer time to find new jobs.

Yet, slowly but surely, we’ve struggled and pushed through the road to recovery and are slowly getting there.

Unemployment Rates in S’pore Fall for 4th Consecutive Month in Feb 2021 as Economy Continues to Recover

And for the last few months, we’ve been doing pretty decently.

As of February, unemployment rates here have reportedly been dropping for four months straight.

On 7 April, Wednesday. Manpower Minister Josephine Teo also acknowledged the improving situation.

The Ministry of Manpower noted that the overall unemployment rate fell to 3.0 per cent in February, down from 3.2 per cent in January.

Resident unemployment dropped to 4.1 per cent, from 4.3 per cent in the preceding month.

Meanwhile, the citizen unemployment rate dropped from 4.5 per cent to 4.3 per cent.

In a Facebook post that also talked about said data, Mrs Teo commented on the progress despite not reaching pre-covid levels yet.

Jobs Growth Incentive

She also talked about how the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) helped to improve hires as well.

Because of the payouts, around 27,000 employers hired 130,000 locals overall in the first three months of the scheme’s implementation.

Along with the JGI and other policy changes, others note that the beginning of the year typically sees businesses having a fresh hiring budget, leading to higher employment rates.

“It is encouraging to see that Government support for employers to expand local hiring has nudged them to consider a more diverse group of job seekers.”

It was previously reported that roughly 60% of the workers under this scheme did not experience a drop in salary.

Though the first qualifying window for the JGI is over, the second phase is currently ongoing from March 2021 to Sept 2021.

Continuing To Improve

Despite all the success, however, staying consistent might be a hurdle in itself.

Mrs Teo warned with every dip in the unemployment rate, the next drop will likely be harder to achieve.

She mentions hiring demand among employers could be a factor along with their willingness to look beyond the usual candidates.

However, she also says that employees may need to try new jobs or pick up new skills to stay in the game.

Luckily, back in February, it was announced that SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package have been allocated another S$5.4 billion.

This would boost the hiring of locals, as well as provide more traineeship and partnership programmes.

And for fresh graduates, there are even more bonuses in place as well.

As of 1 April, ITE and polytechnic graduates under the SGUnited Traineeships programme will have their training allowance raised.

  • ITE graduates: From S$1,100 and S$1,500 to between S$1600 and S$1,800
  • Polytechnic graduates: From S$1,300 and S$1,800 to between S$1,700 and S$2,100
  • University graduates: Allowances will remain the same

Each traineeship has also been shortened from nine to six months. Companies cannot take the same trainee for a second round as well.

So despite the situation improving, we can also take such times to improve ourselves as well!

Featured Image: Facebook (Josephine Teo)

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Ashley Seek
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