Employment rate rose to 80.8% in June despite economic slowdown

But income growth grew at a slower pace.

Notwithstanding increasing economic headwinds, resident employment in Singapore demonstrated a higher growth rate in June 2019 compared to the same month in 2018, according to a report by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

The employment rate for residents aged 25 to 64 rose to 80.8% in June 2019 vs. 80.3% in June 2018. The employment rate for men stayed high whilst that for women continued to improve.

Efforts to boost the employability of older workers materialized as the employment rate of residents aged 65 and over rose to 27.6% from 26.8% over the year.

With regards to workers’ income, despite showing a slower pace, income continued to register growth. Real median income of full-time employed residents grew by 2.2% in 2019, lower than the growth of 4.4% in 2018. Nevertheless, the real median income growth of 3.8% p.a. in the recent five years from 2014 to 2019 was significantly higher than the 1.9% p.a. in the preceding five years.

With the aid of efforts to raise incomes of low-wage workers, income at the 20th percentile increased by 4.4% p.a. in real terms from 2014 to 2019, higher than the 3.8% p.a at the median and significantly higher than in the preceding five years.

Overall, the resident unemployment rate remained low in June 2019. The PMET unemployment rate, those that are non-seasonally adjusted held steady at 2.9% in June 2019, whilst their long-term unemployment rate decreased from 0.8% in June 2018 to 0.6% in June 2019.

More were hired in PMET-concentrated sectors such as modern services. On the other hand, cyclical effects such as the US-China trade conflict that affected manufacturing output and retail trade caused the unemployment rate for non-PMETs to increase from 4.0% a year ago to 4.7% in June 2019. However, the increase in their long-term unemployment rate was slight, from 0.7% to 0.8%.

When it comes to contractual employees, those who are on fixed-term contracts continued to increase from 7.2% in June 2018 to 7.6% in June 2019, suggesting greater caution among employers on hiring amid uncertainty.

Despite dipping slightly in proportion from 89.4% to 89.3%, there were more permanent employees in 2019 compared to 2018, and they continued to form the vast majority of resident employees. The proportion of casual or on-call employees continued to decrease, reflecting the improvement in the education profile of the labour force.