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Written Answer by Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng to PQ on Number of Caregivers who Stopped Work due to Care Responsibilities and Subsequently Returned to Work

Employment practices

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1703 OF 2023 FOR THE SITTING ON 14 FEBRUARY 2023

QUESTION NO. 2690 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

MP: Dr Tan Wu Meng

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) whether studies have been conducted on the annual number of workers over the past five years who have stopped work in order to be a caregiver for an elderly or ailing parent; and (b) if so, how many of these workers have subsequently returned to work.

Answer

We started collecting data, through our labour force surveys, since 2021 on the number of people who are not in the labour force because they are caring for their parents. For the last two years, this has been at around 12,000 each year, or 1% of all residents outside the labour force.

2. As our labour force surveys are cross-sectional and not longitudinal, we do not have data on the number of individuals who had left the labour force and subsequently returned.