Singapore’s labour market is still under the weather from the Covid-19 health-turned-economic crisis, despite the resumption of activities such as in-person dining in at restaurants and in-store shopping.
Resident unemployment edged up 0.4 percentage points to 4.5% in August, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) detailed in its weekly Jobs Situation Report released on Oct 7.
It noted that this was slightly higher than the 0.3 percentage point increase in July, when Singapore’s resident unemployment rate was 4.1%.
“We observe that while monthly unemployment rates have so far generally remained lower than past recessionary highs, it has been gradually rising,” the ministry elaborated.
In contrast, Singapore’s unemployment levels hit 6.2% in during the height of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) pandemic in September 2003. Meanwhile, the jobless rate climbed to 4.9% during the global financial crisis in September 2009.
“We cannot tell, at this point in time, whether in the coming months, the unemployment rate will uptick at a faster rate, or stay around the same,” notes Manpower Minister Josephine Teo.
“Nonetheless we're keeping a very close watch, and when the next set of figures are available, we will also share them with the public," she added.
According to estimates by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s budgets for the year – which amount to nearly $100 billion – will prevent its economy from contracting by a further 5.6% in 2020 and 4.8% in 2021.
At the same time, the measures – particularly the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) which is a blanket wage subsidy – is slated to offset some of the rise in the resident unemployment rate by 1.7% this year.
This translates to about 155,000 jobs being saved between 2020 and 2021, MOM’s report notes.
See: Government measures to prevent economy from contracting by 5.6%, but Singapore still expected to face a full year recession and Government support measures will prevent GDP from contracting by a further 5.6% in 2020, and 4.8% in 2021, says DPM Heng
As the JSS weans off in the coming months the outlook for the job market remains uncertain.
This uncertainty has pushed the government to curate more opportunities such as the $1 billion Jobs Growth Incentive to encourage growing firms to hire more locals
Aside from this, it is offering some 60,000 long-term jobs, of which 37,290 are for roles in the private sector. The remaining 22,700 roles come from the public sector.
Most of these opportunities come from the growth sectors such as information and communications, healthcare, professional services, finance and insurance and manufacturing.
Opportunities are also sprouting up in other sectors such as education, wholesale trade and food services, MOM notes.
“We're watching [the situation] very closely. It's very hard to foretell the future," acknowledges Teo.
"What we can do, however, is to make sure that even the opportunities that are currently available, they continue to be filled as quickly as possible."
