Employment Situation In Second Quarter 2009

Employment

1.   According to preliminary estimates, total employment contracted by 12,400 in the second quarter of 2009, double the losses in the first quarter (-6,200). This is the first time that employment has contracted for two consecutive quarters since the 2003 economic downturn.

2.   Manufacturing (-17,600) again bore the brunt of job losses. Construction increased its workforce (3,400) but the gains were lower than in earlier quarters (8,300 in 1Q 2009 and 22,400 in 2Q 2008). Services added 2,100 workers, also showing lower gains than before (7,500 in 1Q 2009 and 38,300 in 2Q 2008).

 

Table 1: Employment

(In Thousands)

	Employment Change					Employment Level as at Jun 2009 p
	2Q 08	3Q 08	4Q 08	1Q 09	2Q 09p
Total*	71.4	55.7	21.3	-6.2	-12.4	2,933.8
Manufacturing	10.1	4.6	-7.0	-22.1	-17.6	546.6
Construction	22.4	16.5	10.7	8.3	3.4	371.7
Services	38.3	34.3	17.3	7.5	2.1	1,995.6

^P: Preliminary estimates

*: Total includes agriculture, fishing, quarrying, utilities and sewerage & waste management

Data may not add up due to rounding

Retrenchment and Redundancy

3.   According to preliminary estimates, 4,800 workers were retrenched and 700 contracts were terminated prematurely, resulting in a total of 5,500 workers made redundant in the second quarter of 2009. This is less than half the 12,760 redundancies in the first quarter 2009, comprising 10,900 workers retrenched and 1,860 workers whose contracts were terminated prematurely.

Table 2.1: Redundancy

	2Q 08	3Q 08	4Q 08	1Q 09	2Q 09P
Redundancy	1,880	3,180	9,410	12,760	5,500
Retrenchment	1,800	2,350	7,500	10,900	4,800
Early Release of Contract Workers	90	830	1,910	1,860	700

^P:  Preliminary estimates

Data may not add up due to rounding

 

4.   Redundancies in manufacturing fell sharply to 2,600 from 9,250 in the first quarter of 2009. Services laid off 2,400 workers, lower than the 3,170 in the preceding quarter. The remaining 500 were displaced from construction.

Table 2.2: Redundancy by Sector

	2Q 08	3Q 08	4Q 08	1Q 09	2Q 09P
Total *	1,880	3,180	9,410	12,760	5,500
Manufacturing	1,250	2,260	5,170	9,250	2,600
Construction	20	130	390	330	500
Services	620	790	3,810	3,170	2,400

^P: Preliminary estimates

*: Total includes agriculture, fishing, quarrying, utilities and sewerage & waste management

Data may not add up due to rounding

Unemployment

5.   Preliminary estimates show that the overall unemployment rate stabilised at a seasonally adjusted 3.3% in June 2009, unchanged from a quarter ago. Among the resident labour force, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined from 4.8% in March 2009 to 4.6% in June 2009. In the difficult job market, more people are deferring job searches and pursuing courses, including those supported under SPUR.

Table 3: Unemployment Rate

         ^P:  Preliminary estimates

6.   On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the overall unemployment rate rose from 3.0% in March 2009 to 4.2% in June 2009. Among the resident labour force, the non-adjusted unemployment rate was 6.0% in June 2009, higher than the 4.4% in the previous quarter, reflecting the increase in job seekers as tertiary graduates entered the labour market and students sought employment during the mid-year school vacation. An estimated 116,600 residents were unemployed in June 2009. The seasonally adjusted figure was 91,800.


More Information

7.   Information on data sources and coverage as well as definitions of key concepts used in the report can be found in the attached Explanatory Notes. The preliminary data estimates are available online at the Ministry of Manpower's website. A more detailed breakdown of the preliminary estimates will be released in the Economic Survey of Singapore, Second Quarter 2009.

8.   The above is a statistical release of the Manpower Research and Statistics Department of the Ministry.

Upcoming Publications

9.   The Ministry's Manpower Research and Statistics Department will be releasing the full report on the Labour Market, Second Quarter 2009 on 15 September 2009.

 

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Explanatory Notes

Employment

Source
Administrative records. The self-employed component is estimated from the Labour Force Survey.

Coverage
The employment data comprises all persons in employment i.e. employees and the self–employed. However, it excludes males who are serving their 2-year full-time national service liability in the Singapore Armed Forces, Police and Civil Defence Forces.

Data on the number of local (also known as resident) employees are compiled from the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board's administrative records of active contributors defined as local employees who have at least one CPF contribution paid for him/her. A local (also known as resident) employee is any Singapore citizen or Permanent Resident who is employed by an employer under a contract of service or other agreement entered into in Singapore. Every local employee and his/her employer are required to make monthly contributions to the CPF which is a compulsory savings scheme to provide workers financial security in old age and helps meet the needs of healthcare, home-ownership, family protection, and asset enhancement.

Data on foreigners working in Singapore are compiled from administrative records of foreigners on valid work passes issued by the Ministry of Manpower. Foreigners can work in Singapore only if they have valid work passes issued by the Ministry of Manpower.

The number of self-employed residents is estimated from the Labour Force Survey. The self-employed comprises persons aged 15 years and over who are own account workers, employers or contributing family workers.

Concepts and Definitions
Employment change refers to the difference in the employment level at the end of the reference period compared with the end of the preceding period.

Uses and Limitations
This data series allows users to identify individual industries where employment is growing or stagnating. An analysis of the data over time also helps in understanding the impact of economic cyclical and structural changes on the demand for workers. Detailed data are published in the quarterly Labour Market Report.

The change in employment over time is the net result of increases and decreases in employment i.e. net of inflows and outflows of workers. Users should not mistake an increase in employment as gross job creation.

Unemployment

Source
Labour Force Survey

Coverage
The survey covers private households on the main island of Singapore. It excludes workers living in construction worksites, dormitories and workers' quarters at the workplace and persons commuting from abroad to work in Singapore. To achieve full coverage of the labour force in Singapore, data on residents (also known as locals, i.e. Singapore citizens and permanent residents) from the survey are combined with foreign workforce data compiled from work passes issued by the Ministry of Manpower.

Concepts and Definitions
Unemployed Persons refer to persons aged 15 years and over who were without work during the survey reference period but were available for work and were actively looking for a job. They include persons who were not working but were taking steps to start their own business or taking up a new job after the reference period.

Unemployment Rate is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons to the total number of economically active persons (i.e. employed and unemployed persons) aged 15 years and over.

Uses and Limitations
The unemployment rate is probably the best-known measure of the labour market. It measures unutilised labour supply and is useful in the study of the economic cycle as it is closely related to the fluctuations in the business cycle.

Unemployment can have frictional, cyclical and structural elements. As it takes time for job seekers and employers to find a match, there is always a certain level of frictional unemployment due to people changing jobs and from new entrants looking for work for the first time. Unemployment can also be structural e.g. arising from a mismatch between the job seekers and the job openings available. With structural unemployment, even if job vacancies and job seekers coexist in the labour market, they may not be matched over a long period of time. Finally, unemployment can be cyclical. This occurs when there is a general decline in demand for manpower as aggregate demand for goods and services fall in the event of a cyclical downturn. Unlike structural and frictional unemployment where the problem is in matching job openings with job seekers, cyclical unemployment occurs when there are not enough jobs to go around.

Unemployment can vary due to changes in demand or supply of manpower. It can decline if more people succeed in securing employment or when the unemployed persons stop to look for a job and leave the labour force either temporarily (e.g. to take up training) or permanently (e.g. to retire). Conversely, unemployment may rise due to increase in labour supply from new entrants or re-entrants to the labour market. It will also rise if more people quit their jobs to look for alternative employment or if there is an increase in layoffs.

Retrenchment and Redundancy

Source
Labour Market Survey

Coverage
Before 2006, the survey covers private sector establishments each with at least 25 employees. From 2006 onwards, the survey also includes the public sector comprising government ministries, organs of state and statutory boards.

Concepts and Definitions
Retrenchment refers to the termination of employment of a permanent employee due to redundancy. In the public sector, it includes those who left service under the Special Resignation Scheme that allows redundant non-deployable Civil Service or Statutory Board employees to leave their organisations with compensation.

Early release of contract workers refers to employees on term contracts which were terminated prematurely because of redundancy.

Redundancies refer to employees made redundant due to retrenchments or early release of contracts.

Uses and Limitations
Data on retrenchment and redundancy are useful in the analysis of re-structuring or ailing industries. Detailed data are published in the quarterly Labour Market Report.

The number of persons retrenched or made redundant (flow) should not be confused with persons unemployed (stock). Not all persons retrenched or made redundant will be unemployed as some will be re-employed or decide to leave the workforce. Similarly, the pool of unemployed persons comes not only from workers made redundant, but also from new entrants to the labour force such as school leavers and the economically inactive who decide to re-join the workforce.