1,270 Singapore residents retrenched from tech firms since July: MOM

FROM July to mid-November this year, the Ministry of Manpower received notices of retrenchment for 1,270 resident workers in tech companies, said Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng in Parliament on Monday (Nov 28).

About eight in 10 were employed in non-tech roles such as sales, marketing and corporate functions, and around seven in 10 were aged 35 and below. This is consistent with the median age of employed residents in the information and communications (I&C) sector, to which the “tech sector” generally refers, he said.

The recent retrenchments mark a rise from the 260 residents retrenched from the sector in the first half of 2022, Dr Tan noted in response to questions from various Members of Parliament (MPs). It is also higher than the sector’s annual average of 790 resident workers being retrenched in the past five years.

But the retrenchments are a fraction of the rise in employment. In the first half of 2022, there was an increase of 7,000 residents employed in I&C, taking total resident employment in the sector to 136,100 as at June. From June 2017 till June 2022, resident I&C employment grew by an average of 8,100 per year.

Singapore’s tech retrenchments are part of worldwide layoffs, Dr Tan noted. “News sources have reported global retrenchment numbers at more than 21,000 employees across close to 50 tech companies worldwide in November 2022 alone, more than any other month this year.”

But most I&C workers have been able to secure a job soon after retrenchment, with other sectors such as financial services also hiring for tech roles, he said. “There is strong absorptive capacity across the larger economy and opportunities for affected workers to fill in-demand roles.”

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Job vacancies in the I&C sector continued to rise in the first half of this year, to 12,100 in June 2022 from 11,100 in December 2021, he noted. “This latest figure is more than triple the 3,800 vacancies in June 2020.”

In the second quarter of the year, retrenched I&C resident workers – in both tech and non-tech roles – had a higher rate of re-entry into employment in the six months after being retrenched, compared to the economy-wide average.

For the most recent retrenchments from July to mid-November, half of the firms with retrenchments have engaged outplacement partners or tapped industry networks to provide career transition services for their affected workers, said Dr Tan.

The Taskforce for Responsible Retrenchment and Employment Facilitation is also reaching out to all affected local employees to provide support. Some seven in 10 I&C resident workers who took up the taskforce’s assistance in 2021 found a new job within six months, Dr Tan said, in response to a question by MP Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC) on the effectiveness of job placement initiatives.

Asked by Tanjong Pagar GRC MP Joan Pereira about whether a hotline could be set up for affected workers, Dr Tan replied that as retrenchment numbers remain manageable, retrenched employees can continue to seek help through the Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices hotline, without the need for a dedicated hotline.

Asked how retrenchments affected workers’ salaries, Dr Tan said that MOM does not have such data. Retrenching firms are not required to include salary data of retrenched employees in their mandatory retrenchment notifications, though the government can look into tracking these figures, he said.