Unemployment rate for residents increase?

It states that “The unemployment rate for Singapore residents rose to 2.9 per cent from 2.7 per cent while the citizen unemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.9 per cent.”

Reading news and internet – world of difference?

News reports as usual report what is in the narrative of the Labour Market Report Q1 2013 (can’t blame anyone because the news has to come out fast, so maybe no time to try to dwell deeper into such very long reports (that’s why we need a free internet and bloggers! (Reference: Balancing trust and regulations: In push for rollback of Internet Laws, netizens must win public’s trust too”, Straits Times, Jun 15)).

Degree holders kenna most?

For example, if you look at the chart on page 2 of the report, you can see that “degree holders” is only 1 of 2 categories (out of the total 6 categories) that had an increase in the unemployment rate from March 2012 to March 2013, from 2.7 to 2.8%. The other category that had an increase was “secondary” from 2.6 to 3.0%. The unemployment rate declined for the other 4 categories.

But, percentages may not tell the whole story, or the significance of the story, which in this case, in my view, is the number of people unemployed in the different categories.

Unemployed degree holders formed the largest group (by number, not percentage) of all the categories, at 18,800 (no surprise given that it seems that this trend has been persistent for quite some time now).

So much for the “study hard, upgrade yourself” rhetoric of the “Singapore dream”. Maybe that’s why we have had so much talk recently about a degree being not so important (anymore?).

The second highest category of unemployed (by numbers) was secondary, at 12,700.

Are you ready for the next whammy?

Older workers kenna most?

– By numbers, the largest category of unemployed by age, was (no prize for guessing as this trend may also appear to have been persistent for some time now) the oldest age group category – age 40 and over, with 25,800 older folks unemployed (it just struck me that I am lucky to still be working as I approach the age (in 5 months time) to qualify for the senior citizens’ public transport concession card (I have waited long long to save some money on buses and MRT)).

Long-term unemployment kenna most also?

If you feel after reading so far that it is “jialat” to be more educated and older – actually it gets worse – because the long-term unemployment rate also only increased for 2 of the 6 categories by education. Only degree and diploma & professional qualification had an increase in their long-term unemployment rate, to 0.9 and 0.7%, respectively.

Surprise! Surprise! (no prize for guessing again) – By the numbers (not percentage), degree holders had the largest number, at 5,700, and diploma & professional qualification came in second (like in a race to be the worse off), at 2,700.

In percentage terms, it also does not pay to be older in Singapore, because the age 40 and over also had the highest percentage, at 0.7%. In number terms, they were also the highest, at 8,800.

Who’s getting jobs created?

As to “Total employment grew by 28,900 in the first quarter of 2013, substantially lower than the seasonal high increase of 44,000 in the last quarter of 2012, but slightly above the 27,200 in the first quarter of 2012. This brought total employment to 3,386,500 in March 2013, which was 4.0% higher than a year ago”

– who’s getting most of the growth in total employment (new jobs created)?

Foreign workers? Why don’t breakdown into foreign workers, PRs and Singaporeans?

Since the unemployment rate for Singaporeans remained the same at 2.9%, whilst total employment grew by 4.0% – what do these numbers mean? – A significant proportion of the growth in jobs went to foreigners and PRs? (think no point guessing – just keep asking for the breakdown into foreign workers, PRs and Singaporeans lah)

Redundancy – PMETs kenna most?

When I next looked at the redundancy statistics, the first thought that came to my head was – maybe better don’t study so hard – because “Professionals, Managers, Executives & Technicians (PMETs) formed three in four (75%) of  the residents laid off in the first quarter of 2013″!

Older workers also kenna most?

Also, better don’t be older – because “Two in three of the residents laid off in the first quarter of 2013 were aged 40 & over”.

In other words, both PMETs and older workers had redundancy rates that were  way above their proportion in the total work force.

For example, I understand that about 50 plus % of the workforce are PMETs, but 75% of those laid off were PMETs!

Harder to get job when you lose job?

With regard to “The rate of re-entry into employment declined, after rising in the preceding quarter. Based on CPF records, nearly one in two (49%) residents laid off in the fourth quarter of 2012 secured employment by March 2013 (i.e. within six months of redundancy), down from the 57% experienced by the previous cohort (laid off in the third quarter of 2012) in December 2012″

– it means that it is harder to get a job when you lose your job.

Mismatch between jobs & job-seekers?

Don’t you find this rather strange – job vacancies increase a lot, but re-entry into employment decreased a lot? Could this mean that most of the vacancies may be jobs that the unemployed don’t want, or employers don’t want?

Let me use an analogy to illustrate this apparent problem. You are an older degree holder who got fired. You go to seek help to find a job. And the only job offered to you is to be a security guard at less than half your previous pay on top of a typical 12-hour work day for 6 days every week (“Within services, security & investigation still clocked in longer paid hours (total: 51.6, overtime: 8.0″)).

Classic example of got vacancies, but a lot of Singaporeans can’t find a suitable job after losing their job (I am from Raffles Institution and I have come across schoolmates who became “security guard” and “taxi driver”, and many who have given up looking for a job).

What jobs? How much pay?

Let me put it in this way – news headlines that keep saying more jobs may be quite meaningless, unless we know what type of jobs, what’s the pay, and who is getting most of the jobs – Singaporeans, PRs or foreigners (oops, and I forgot new citizens and new PRs – didn’t the population white paper say 25,000 new citizens and 30,000 new PRs in a year, every year, going forward to 2030?)

How many gave up looking for job?

In this connection, “According to figures from the Manpower Ministry (MOM), there are more than 418,000 economically inactive residents aged 25 to 64.

More than 160,000 economically inactive individuals want to find work during the next two years” (“More Singaporeans could re-enter workforce if firms adopt flexi-work“, Channel NewsAsia, May 20)

– may give a clue as to why so many vacancies but no takers? Perhaps the news headline should be changed to “More Singaporeans could re-enter workforce if firms “pay more””!

Nobody wants public sector jobs?

The article “Job vacancies up in first quarter” (Straits Times, Jun 15) said “The MOM figures show the most job vacancies for PMETs in public administration and education, with 5,300 vacancies”.

What is “public administration”? Jobs in the public sector – civil service, statutory boards, government agencies? I don’t know about you, but I find it very hard to believe that nobody wants to work in the public sector, such that there are so many vacancies that cannot be filled?

Job title, pay please?

Why not list the job titles, pay, job requirements to apply and the number of jobs, so that the unemployed can go and try to get these “public administration” jobs?

Older workers’ discrimination?

The statistics may be indicative of widespread discrimination against older Singaporean workers, which is also panned out in the wage statistics which indicate that for lower-pay jobs particularly, wages tend to fall as workers age.

Longest work hours in the world?

The “AVERAGE WEEKLY TOTAL PAID HOURS WORKED” remained unchanged at 46.2 hours for 2010, 2011, 2012 and March 2013, which I believe is still the longest work hours in the world. Another world first for Singapore, that we have managed to maintain for several years already!

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Leong Sze Hian

* Leong Sze Hian is the Past President of the Society of Financial Service Professionals, an alumnus of Harvard University, Wharton Fellow, SEACeM Fellow and an author of 4 books. He is frequently quoted in the media. He has also been invited to speak more than 100 times in 25 countries on 5 continents. He has served as Honorary Consul of Jamaica, Chairman of the Institute of Administrative Management, and founding advisor to the Financial Planning Associations of Brunei and Indonesia. He has 3 Masters, 2 Bachelors degrees and 13 professional qualifications. He blogs at http://www.leongszehian.com.