Resident employment decreases for first time since mid-2020

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Labour Market Report said on Thursday (Sept 14) that the number of employed Singapore citizens and permanent residents decreased by 1,200 in the second quarter of this year.

This is the first time the number has fallen since the second quarter of 2020.

“Robust increases in sectors such as community, social and personal services and financial and insurance services were offset by contractions in food and beverage services and retail trade due to outflow from the cessation of seasonal hiring,” said MOM.

However, total employment excluding migrant domestic workers grew for the seventh straight quarter, with 25,500 non-residents getting hired in the second quarter of this year.

The fall in employment numbers is largely due to fewer people working in retail trade and food and beverage services because of seasonal factors, MOM said.

Hiring related to seasonal events goes up. Much of it is temporary work that goes to part-time workers or students.

Manpower Minister Tan See Lung warned against complacency but said, “You may sort of see this kind of lumpy seasonality, so I wouldn’t act on one quarter’s sort of drop.”

“What is important is that there’s still hiring,” the Manpower Minister added.

The director of Manpower Research and Statistics at MOM, Mr Ang Boon Heng, is quoted in CNA as saying, “Usually in the second half of the year, close to September until December, and sometimes stretching a little bit into the Chinese New Year, we have all these year-end festivities as well as we have the (Formula One race).”

The decrease in resident employment is not expected to continue, MOM says. Hiring is expected to rise in the coming months due to the recovery in tourism and the year-end celebrations, although the figures are not likely to go up as much as last year.

/TISG

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