Jobs created to Singaporeans declined from 45 to 10+%?

February 13, 2014

I chanced upon an occasional paper, Employment of Singapore Citizens, Permanent Residents and Foreigners 1997 – 2006, published by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

Jobs breakdown into Singaporeans and PRs?

What stuck me is that the above paper shows the breakdown of employment change and total employment into Singaporeans, PRs and foreigners.

No jobs breakdown anymore?

This is significant as despite calls for more transparency in the labour statistics in recent years – there has not been any breakdown of the resident statistics into Singaporeans and PRs.

Jobs to Singaporeans declining?

I calculated the ratio of employment change of Singaporeans to total employment change as follows:

2000 – 0.45

2004 – 0.448

2005 – 0.397

2006 – 0.367

(Note: I have ignored those years where there were negative employment change)

You can see from the above that the trend has been that the proportion of jobs created that went to Singaporeans has been declining.

Has this trend continued to today? We don’t know because the residents’ statistics are no longer broken down into Singaporeans and PRs.

If the statistics can be broken down in the subject paper, why is it not broken down in the last few years?

Jobs to Singaporeans only about 10 to 20%?

If you read my articles “457,000 new citizens & PRs vs 431,200 jobs?‘ (Feb 2) and “The alternative news in 1 day? (part 46) – Foreign workers create jobs for Singaporeans?” (Feb 1) – after adjusting for the huge influx of new citizenships and new PRs granted in recent years – I estimate the ratio of jobs to Singaporeans over employment change may be as low as 0.1 to 0.2.

Leong Sze Hian

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About the Author

Leong
Leong Sze Hian has served as the president of 4 professional bodies, honorary consul of 2 countries, an alumnus of Harvard University, authored 4 books, quoted over 1500 times in the media , has been a radio talkshow host, a newspaper daily columnist, Wharton Fellow, SEACeM Fellow, columnist for theonlinecitizen and Malaysiakini, executive producer of Ilo Ilo (40 international awards), Hotel Mumbai (associate producer), invited to speak more than 200 times in about 40 countries, CIFA advisory board member, founding advisor to the Financial Planning Associations of 2 countries. He has 3 Masters, 2 Bachelors degrees and 13 professional  qualifications.