Employment rate for older Singaporeans reaches record high

64% of residents aged 55 to 64 are employed.

According to Ministry of Manpower’s Research and Statistics Department, the employment rate for older residents increased at a faster pace, amid the tight labour market and measures to improve the employability of older residents, including the implementation of the re-employment legislation and the enhanced Special Employment Credit earlier this year.

64% of residents aged 55 to 64 were employed in 2012, higher than 61.2% in 2011. Both the employment rate for older males (from 76.4% to 79.7%) and females (from 46.3% to 48.1%) rose to new highs.

Both professionals, managers, executives & technicians (PMETs) and  non-PMETs experienced employment gains over the year.

Driven by the strong  increase in clerical, sales & service workers (7.0%) which outweighed the decrease  in production & related workers (-1.8%), resident non-PMET employment increased  by 2.7% in 2012, faster than the growth of 1.5% for PMETs. Consequently, the  PMET share of resident employment dipped from 52.2% in 2011 to 51.9% in 2012. 

This was still higher than the 44.6% in 2002 as PMETs experienced faster  employment growth (4.5% p.a.) than non-PMETs (1.4% p.a.) over the decade.  Similar trends were observed for professionals, managers & executives (PMEs),  whose share of resident employment rose from 26.6% in 2002 to 31.5% in 2011 before dipping to 31.2% in 2012.