Mid-life crisis: Bulk of Singapore’s unemployed are older than 40

Aging jobseekers face tougher prospects.

Singaporeans aged 40 and over made up the largest share among unemployed residents in Q1 2014, data from the Ministry of Manpower revealed today.

MoM’s Labor Market survey showed that there were 29,000 unemployed residents older than 40. This is equivalent to 49% of the 59,300 unemployed residents for March 2014.

There are also more older residents who suffer from long-term unemployment. MoM’s data showed that out of 12,900 residents who had been looking for work for more than 25 weeks, almost 8,700 were older than 40.

When it comes to the rate of re-entry, only 47% of older residents were able to find a job within six months of redundancy.

In comparison, 67% of those younger than 30 and 54.2% of those aged 30-39 were able to re-enter employment within six months.

According to the MoM, “The overall seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 1.8% in December 2013 to 2.0% in March 2014. Similar increases were observed for residents from 2.7% to 2.9% and citizens from 2.8% to 3.0%. Despite the increase, the unemployment rates
were still low, comparable to earlier quarters.”