While fresh graduates have difficulty getting a job, Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs) with decent work experience struggle to remain in the workforce. Retrenchments in Singapore rose in 1Q2019 to 3,230, from 2,510 in 4Q2018, driven by losses in the manufacturing sector, with production and related workers in electronics the most affected, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said in its Labour Market Report for 1Q.
The electronics sector accounted for 18% of retrenchments, followed by the services industries such as wholesale trade, which accounted for 16% of layoffs. The transport and storage sector had the lowest rate of retrenchment at 10%.
“While restructuring and reorganisation remained the main reason cited by establishments for retrenchments, there was a rise in the share of retrenchments from the previous quarter due to high costs and the downturn in the industry,” the report said.
PMETs made up the majority of the retrenched population at 69%, mainly because they form a higher percentage of the workforce and are thus more vulnerable to retrenchments. MOM says “the tightness in the labour market may ease, as job vacancies declined for the first time in two years and retrenchments rose in this quarter”.
Of those retrenched, 5.5% were below 30 years old, 21.2% were between 30 and 39, 34.4% were between 40 and 49 and 38.9% were aged 50 and above. As economic conditions deteriorate, Irvin Seah, senior economist at DBS Bank, cautions that retrenchment numbers may see an uptick in the coming quarters. However, he does not expect the numbers to be as bad as those posted in 1997 after the Asian financial crisis and in 2001 after the dotcom bubble burst.
While many workers were retrenched, there were others who chose to quit. The Future of Skills 2019 Report, launched by LinkedIn on June 19, revealed that more than two in five employees left their companies because of a lack of learning and development opportunities. Two out of three respondents to LinkedIn’s survey reported feeling daunted by the pace of change in their industries, and only 17% thought that the learning and development opportunities offered by their companies were sufficient.
Moreover, the report highlighted that blockchain, workflow automation and human-centred design are the three skills with growing demand in Singapore. It also acknowledged that soft skills such as creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving play a vital role in enhancing an employee’s contribution to and happiness at their job.
