Written Answer by Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng to PQ on Number of Stay-At-Home Mums and Efforts to Help Them Seek Employment

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1731 OF 2023 FOR THE SITTING ON OR AFTER 23 FEBRUARY 2023

QUESTION NO. 2738 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

MP: Yip Hon Weng

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) how many Stay-At-Home Mums (SAHMs) are there currently in Singapore; (b) of these, how many are seeking employment; (c) how is the Ministry helping SAHMs who have been upskilling but are still rejected by potential employers and recruiters; and (d) whether the Ministry will consider a place-and-train programme for SAHMs.

Answer:

1. There is no recognised definition of stay-at-home mums. However, a good proxy would be women who are not looking for work because they have to take care of their own children aged 12 & below. Based on data from MOM’s Comprehensive Labour Force Survey, the size of this group of women was 39,100 in 2022. Additionally, there were 2,400 unemployed women actively looking for jobs who had previously left their jobs to take care of their children.¹

2. Stay-at-home mums who need support to re-enter the workforce can tap on Workforce Singapore’s (WSG) full suite of employment facilitation programmes and services. Those who need a skills top-up can apply for Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs), which provide significant salary support to employers to provide training for their new hires to take on the new job role. With the breadth and variety of place-and-train CCPs available – close to 100 across around 30 sectors – they can choose from many options, depending on their career interests. Stay-at-home mums who have not been employed for at least six months, or are aged 40 years old and above, are eligible for higher salary support of up to 90% under CCPs.

3. Stay-at-home mums who need job search assistance can visit WSG’s Careers Connect and NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute’s career centres for career advisory and guidance to learn how to better position their skills and experience to potential employers and recruiters.

4. Employers too have to play their part to help those who have been away from the workforce for some time to ease back into the workplace. By doing so, employers can tap into this segment of the labour force and the transferable skills and experiences that they may have acquired in their earlier careers. MOM also works with the Institute for Human Resource Professionals and the Singapore National Employers Federation to emphasise the need for employers to adopt fair employment practices and not to discriminate against any group, including stay-at-home-mums returning to work, in line with the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices.