Unemployment rate for S’poreans improve

I refer to the article “Unemployment rate for Singaporeans improves in first quarter: Manpower Ministry” (Straits Times, Apr 28).

It states that “The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 1.9 per cent as of March 2016. The rate for citizens fell to 2.6 per cent, from 3 per cent in December, and that for Singaporeans and PRs combined was 2.7 per cent, down from 2.9 per cent, according to preliminary estimates released by the Manpower Ministry (MOM) on Thursday (April 28).

This was largely because a smaller proportion of young people aged 15 to 24 were working or looking for work, MOM said.

Total employment reached 3,667,600 as of March 2016.”

No breakdown of employment into locals & foreigners?

Although the MOM report did not breakdown the total employment into foreigners and locals, we can estimate it from the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate.

The estimated number of locals’ employed is 2,237,037 (60,400 unemployed locals divided by residents’ unemployment rate of 2.7 per cent).

Foreign workers hit all-time high of 39%?

So, does it mean that the percentage of foreign workers is about 39 per cent (3,667,600 total employment – 2,237,037 locals divided by 3,667,600)?

This is higher than the 37.9 per cent in December 2015 (1,387,300 foreigners divided by 3,656,200 total employment).

Hence, has foreign employment reached another all-time high of about 39 per cent?

How many new PRs/new citizens?

By the way, how many new PRs and new citizens were granted in the first quarter of this year, which may throw a different light to the numbers estimated above?

2% of jobs growth to locals?

Also, since only 2.2 per cent of jobs growth last year went to locals (700 jobs) against 97.8 per cent (31,600 jobs) to foreigners – how many of the 11,400 jobs growth in the first quarter went to Singaporeans?

Leong Sze Hian