More people lost jobs last year
I refer to the article “More people lost jobs last year, with manufacturing and services hit hardest” (Straits Times, Apr 20).
It states that “Seventy per cent of those who secured new jobs found them in a different industry from before, with wholesale and retail trade and administrative and support services being the most likely areas with vacancies.”
72.8% of IT workers shifted to other industries?
According to the MOM report – 72.8 per cent of Information & Communications workers who were made redundant and managed to re-enter employment – shifted to other industries.
The above seems rather odd, given that “The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) told The Straits Times that in 2014, when there were 150,000 technology professionals working in Singapore, about 15,000 vacancies could not be filled” (“S’pore may lack 30,000 professionals by 2017; not enough local grads, says industry”, Straits Times, Feb 8).
Union members harder to get re-employed?
The other odd statistic may arguably be that the “Rate of Re-entry into Employment of Residents Made Redundant” for union members decreased from 69.1 in 2014 to 59.6 in 2015.
In contrast, the rate for non-union members increased from 67.1 to 67.6.
So, does it mean that union members had a harder time relatively – in getting re-employed?
Locals redundancy 40% more than foreigners?
As to “Overall, residents were less vulnerable to lay-offs compared to foreigners, with the incidence of redundancy among residents at 7.1 layoffs per 1,000 employees lower than foreigners at 7.7 per 1,000” (Channel NewsAsia, Apr 20) – 9,090 or 58 per cent of the 15,580 redundancies were locals, with 6,490 being foreigners.
So, locals’ redundancy was 40 per cent (9,090 divided by 6,490) more than foreigners.
Foreigners’ jobs growth 4,400% more than locals?
Since foreigners’ jobs growth last year was about 4,400 per cent more than locals’ jobs growth (31,600 foreigners divided by 700 locals) – locals (Singaporeans and PRs) may be in a sense being hit at both ends.
I shutter to think how many thousands of per cent more it was for Singaporeans, since “locals” include PRs!
Leong Sze Hian
