According to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) latest labour market report, there were 6,440 retrenchments in 2022, fewer than the 10,690 in 2019 and 8,020 in 2021.
This marks the lowest number of retrenchments since MOM began collecting data in 1998.
The report also revealed that 73.1% of retrenched residents found work within six months of being laid off in the fourth quarter of the year, the highest rate since Q2 2015.
Additionally, total employment reached a record-high increase of 227,800 in 2022, pushing employment numbers 2.9% above pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Resident employment was said to have grown by 26,300, primarily in outward-oriented sectors such as financial services and information & communications. By December 2022, resident employment numbers surpassed 2019 levels by 4.8%.
The above statistics would also suggest that at least 88.5% of the employment growth last year, went to foreigners.
Since the resident employment growth of 26,300 was for S’poreans & Permanent Residents (PRs), what is the percentage of jobs that went to Singaporeans?
MOM should have the figures and should provide a breakdown of the employment figures into Singaporeans and PRs.
In this connection, sometimes, for example, while it did provide a breakdown into resident and non-resident jobs growth, for its Q2 2021 report, it did not provide for its Q1 2021 report, after providing a breakdown in Q4 2020. This makes us wonder if the figures are released only if the figures of the breakdown are positive and perhaps hidden, when it is not.
In any case, over 30,000 new PRs are granted on average each year, so when a foreign worker is converted to acPR, the worker is counted as one resident job growth.
Furthermore, it should be noted that new PRs granted hit an 11-year high of 33,435 in 2021, and the 21,537 new citizens granted also increased by 2.1%.
If we add to the above the estimated more than 60,000 new PRs granted in 2022 and 2020 – the narrative that the jobs growth pre vs post-pandemic, was still relatively higher for residents vs foreigners, becomes reversed.
