A total of 18,000 new job seekers registered for employment assistance in Singapore in the first nine months of this year, down from 31,000 last year.
According to a joint press release from the Singapore Community Development Councils (CDCs) for the second quarter, the numbers of new job seekers registered for employment assistance were 6,400 and 5,600 for the first and second quarters respectively.
Therefore, the number of new job seekers for the third quarter would be 6,000 (18,000 – 5,600 – 6,400).
With media reports saying that the job market is bursting at its seams, and the Singapore economy on track to being the fastest growing economy in the world at 15 percent GDP growth for this year, why is it that the number of new job seekers increased by seven percent from 5,600 in the second quarter to 6,000 in the third?
In the last three months, more than 3,200 job seekers were placed into employment, and since there were 6,000 new job seekers last quarter, the placement ratio of placed into employment to job seekers was 53 percent (3,200 divided by 6,000).
Similarly, for the second quarter, the placement ratio was 71 per cent. So, why has the placement ratio dropped from 71 percent to 53 percent for the last quarter?
Since the Singapore job market is booming, shouldn’t the placement ratio be increasing instead?
Also, what this means is that since new job seekers increased by seven per cent, when coupled with the placement ratio’s decline from 71 to 53 percent for the third quarter, does it mean that actually more job seekers were unable to find employment in Singapore?
Training
The CDC career centres referred more than 1,600 job seekers for training, which amounted to a three percent drop compared with the same period last year.
However, this statistic does not seem to gel with what the CDCs have always been saying in the past, that due to the drop in the number of job seekers registered, with the improving economic conditions and wider employment opportunities, the number of job seekers referred for training has also dropped.
So, why is it that training referrals have increased by 45 percent from 1,100 to 1,600 in the last quarter?
In this connection, I understand that job seekers who go for training are not counted in the unemployment statistics in Singapore.
Is the above statistical definition applied in Malaysia too?
Financial assistance
As for the number of people who sought social assistance dropping by 10 percent to some 10,000 in the July to September period from the corresponding period last year, why is it that while new job seekers are down significantly from 31,000 last year to 18,000 for the first nine months of this year, there are still 10,000 or more new households applying for social assistance every quarter of this year?
In fact, year-to-date, there were 34,500 new households that applied for social assistance.
I find it rather alarming that despite the economic boom, the number of new social assistance applications is only about 1,000 (10 percent) less than that in the same quarter last year, which was in the midst of Singapore’s worst recession.
If we add the new household applications to the number of old household that applied in the past, how many households in total have applied for assistance in Singapore?
Since the CDCs received about 36,300 and more than 48,000 applications for social assistance in 2008 and 2009 respectively, at the current year’s application rate, the total for the year may still be about 44,000, which is about 21 percent more than the pre-recession figure of 36,300 in 2008, and just eight percent less than last year, which was the worst recession period in Singapore.
Consequently, the CDC statistics do not seem to be in line with the robust economic situation in Singapore this year.
Since the number of households applications approved in 2009 was 33,000, it means that the approval success rate was 69 percent. What is the approval success rate so far, for this year?
Finally, I would like to suggest that the statistics be tracked and revealed as to how many of those who apply for assistance are working, so that we have some indication as to how many households may not be earning enough income to support their families.
By the way, what are the statistics in Malaysia for the above, for comparative purposes?
