Contract employments slip in 2015: MOM

On back of fewer residents on longer-term contracts.

Contract employment slipped in 2015 after an uptick a year ago, according to a report by the Ministry of Manpower. Mostly, this pullback is due to a fall in residents on longer-term contracts of at least a year from 93,300 or 5.3% in 2014 to 88,200 or 4.9% in 2015.

Approximately 202,400 or 11.3% of resident employees were on term contracts in 2015, reflecting a dip from 205,500 or 11.8% in 2014. This is a continuation of general downtrend in incidence of term contract employment from the peak in 2009.

The proportion of resident employees on short-term contracts of less than a year, including casual or on-call workers, stabilised at 6.4% after a slight downtrend since 2009.

Part-time employment stabilised as well, sustaining an uptrend in earlier years. 223,100 or 10.4% of employed residents were part-timers in 2015, similar to 220,200 or 10.5% in 2014.

Meanwhile, time-related underemployment continued to fall for the fourth consecutive year. This year only saw some 62,600 or 2.9% of employed residents as part-timers willing and available to work additional hours, tumbling from last year’s figures of 71,400 or 3.4%.