Under pressure from MPs in Parliament, the Manpower Minister Josephine Teo released data of past decade (2010 to 2019) concerning the breakdown of Professionals, Managers, Executives & Technicians (PMETs) by industries and residential status earlier this month (4 Sep).
From the data, it can be seen that the total number of PMETs working in Singapore increased from 1.25 to 1.70 million (36% increase) from 2010 to 2019.
However, the proportion of Singaporeans among the total number of PMETs working here decreased from 64.2% to 61.7% while that of foreigners (including PRs) increased from 35.8% to 38.3% during the past decade.
According to the released data, the proportion of Singaporean PMETs working in most industries in Singapore had also decreased, with the corresponding rise in proportion of foreigners from 2010 to 2019:
Manufacturing
Construction
(Note: Majority of PMETs in the construction industry are now dominated by foreigners)
Services
The only bright spot appeared to be in the industry classification of “others” by the Manpower Ministry (MOM). According to MOM, this includes agriculture, fishing, quarrying, utilities and sewage & waste management.
Others
In Parliament on 1 Sep this month, Mrs Teo promised that her ministry will review the hiring practices of companies whose “Singaporean core has been weakening”, as well as those whose Employment Pass (EP) and S Pass workforce are “overly concentrated” from a single foreign nationality source.
She said MOM will work with other agencies to actively intervene and help such companies reshape their workforce profiles. The ministry will also engage the human resources community to “do more”, she added.
It remains to be seen if the proportion of Singaporean PMETs working in Singapore will increase by the next general election.
