Singapore’s labour market on recovery

Singapore (VNA) – Singapore’s resident employment staged a strong rebound in the third quarter of 2020, lifting resident employment levels to near pre-pandemic levels, according to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

Resident employment jumped 43,200 to 2.34 million in September, which is just a notch below September 2019 figure of 2.35 million, according to the Labour Market Report Q3 2020.

Non-resident employment, excluding foreign domestic workers, however, contracted by 72,300 in Q3, even more sharply than the first half of the year. This led to a contraction of 29,100 in total employment for Q3, easing from the contraction of 103,800 in Q2, when Singapore was on a partial economic shutdown.

Overall and citizen unemployment rates were 3.6 per cent and 4.9 per cent respectively in October, unchanged from September. Resident unemployment inched up from 4.7 per cent to 4.8 per cent during this period.

Minister of Manpower Josephine Teo said the support measures for local employment played a key role in stabilising the job market, adding these include Jobs Support Scheme and National Wages Council guidelines that helped to preserve a strong Singaporean core across all sectors.

Almost 60,000 local job seekers were placed into work and training opportunities under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package from April to October, the MOM said. More than 120,000 openings are still available.

However, Teo warned that challenges lie ahead as the nature of jobs changes./.