Its about time that we stopped giving just “locals” jobs statistics, without “Singaporeans” jobs statistics?
I refer to the article “Local employment growth nearly doubles in 2017: MOM report” (Today, Mar 15).
It states that “The Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) latest annual labour market report showed that local employment increased by 21,300 in 2017, nearly double the growth in 2016 (11,200). Over the same period, retrenchments fell from 19,170 to 14,720.”
In this connection, last year the number of new citizens and permanent residents (PRs) granted was 22,076 and 31,849, respectively.
As to “From a high of 3.2 per cent in December 2016, the seasonally-adjusted resident unemployment rate dropped to 3 per cent in December last year” – it was recently reported in the media that “The annual average unemployment rate for 2017 for Singaporeans was 3.3 per cent, higher than the average of 3.1 per cent in 2016”.
If we account for the foreign workers who were reclassified as resident workers when they became PRs or citizens – what is the unemployment rate of true-blue Singaporeans and how many of the jobs growth went to Singaporeans?
With regard to “S pass holders grew by 4,700, while the number of foreign workers on employment pass (EP) declined by 4,500” – does it mean that the total number of foreigners on S pass and EP increased by 200 (4,700 – 4,500)?
In respect of “From 2012 to last year, real income growth at the 20th percentile of full-time employed Singaporeans (4.3 per cent per annum) was faster than at the median (3.9 per cent per annum)” – since we can give the statistics on the income and unemployment of Singaporeans – why can’t we give the statistics for Singaporeans’ job growth?
Leong Sze Hian
