Singapore's Q4 total employment rebounds, 2021 unemployment falls across the board

SINGAPORE'S labour market is expected to continue improving in 2022, but a recovery to pre-pandemic levels continues to be uneven across the economy alongside the uncertain trajectory of Covid-19, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Friday (Jan 28).

Fourth-quarter total employment, excluding migrant domestic workers, rebounded by 47,400, surging after Q3's decline of 2,400, according to MOM's advance data.

MOM said part of the increase in resident employment reflects seasonal hiring due to the year-end peak period in food and beverage services and retail trade. These sectors are seeing growth for the first time following a decline in the first half of the year.

The resumption of entry approvals for fully vaccinated workers in the construction, marine shipyard and process sectors from early November has also helped to boost the numbers of non-resident employment in the construction sector.

"Adopting a risk-managed approach in border control measures has allowed our non-resident workforce to rebound to a small degree after 2 years of sharp decline," MOM said in a statement.

Still, the growth in non-resident employment in Q4 has not been enough to make up for the declines in the first 3 quarters.

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This means non-resident employment is expected to contract for the full year, albeit at a "much slower pace" than in 2020, MOM said.

Coupled with the stronger growth in resident employment, total employment is expected to see a rebound of 40,800 in 2021, compared with the contraction of 166,600 in 2020.

Meanwhile, overall and citizen employment rates each fell 0.1 percentage point in December to 2.4 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively. The resident unemployment rate was flat at 3.2 per cent.

Still, the annual unemployment rate showed significant improvement compared with 2020 even though they continue to remain above pre-pandemic levels.

Overall employment rate fell from 3 per cent to 2.6 per cent; resident, from 4.1 per cent to 3.5 per cent; and citizen, from 4.2 per cent to 3.7 per cent.

In 2019, the annual overall unemployment rate was 2.3 per cent; resident, 3.1 per cent; and citizen 3.3 per cent.

Retrenchments fell to 1,300 in Q4, improving further from the previous quarter's 1,900.

MOM noted that the number of retrenchments declined significantly over the year, from 26,110 in 2020 to 7,820 in 2021.

The reasons cited for retrenchment also differ: in 2021, "reorganisation" and "restructuring" were a common reason, while retrenchments were mainly due to "recession" and "business downturn" in 2020.