Singapore labour market grows while resident employment at
all-time high: Labour Report
SINGAPORE: About 1.8 million residents were employed - a record
high says the Manpower Ministry since it started observing such
trends in 1991 - while Singapore's labour market grew by over 5
percent in the last two years. This is according to the latest
labour force report released on Friday.
Boosted by higher migration, more female and older workers, the
overall labour force has grown strongly in the past two years in
tandem with strong economic expansion.
The report also highlighted the positive job outlook for residents,
which the Manpower Ministry defines as not just
Singaporeans but also Permanent Residents.
It said 76 percent of the resident population aged 25 to 64 were
employed - the highest since data was first compiled in 1991.
In real terms, this translates to 1.8 million residents employed in
June 2006.
In many ways, these figures are significant because they come on
the back of feedback in recent years, where one of the main grouses
of people trying to make a living is that despite the economic
upturn, jobs have been going to foreigners instead of to
Singaporeans.
Most of the new jobs taken by residents were also higher value
added, which means more people working in the professionals and
managers category. This came mainly at the expense of production
and related workers though.
"The real challenge is we have all these jobs but if the workers
are not up to speed, are not relevant, then they will not be able
to do those jobs. We need to run really fast. Workers need to run
really fast also in continuing to ensure their skills remain
relevant and they can take advantage of those new opportunities
created by our economy," said Halimah Yacob, Asst
Secretary-General, NTUC.
Unemployment also improved to a record low for the last five years
using June figures as a basis of comparison, and with robust
economic conditions, residents found jobs a lot faster - down to
just 8 weeks from the previous 12 weeks.
Two concerns remain though. The number of older workers is
increasing, while there remains a sizeable pool of residents
without even secondary school qualifications - over half a million
workers. - CNA /dt
Statistics aside, how's the grounds really doing?
