THE number of workers who lost their jobs last year soared to about 16,000, a five-year high.
Of these, 13,400 were retrenched and the remaining 2,600 were contract workers asked to go before their contracts ended.
The surge, reported by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Friday, reflects the toll from the global financial crisis, which is expected to get worse.
The Government has warned that layoffs could reach levels seen in previous recessions, like the 1998 Asian financial crisis. Retrenchments then peaked at 30,000.
However, Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong told Singaporeans last night that even though retrenchments and unemployment will continue to go up, there is no need to be demoralised.
The Government has taken steps to stem job losses and help those laid off to re-skill and find other jobs, he told reporters at a community event.
He cited especially the Jobs Credit scheme, which pays for part of a worker's wage, and the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience, or Spur, which heavily subsidises worker training.
Earlier, analysts interviewed said MOM's figures on the job losses were just the tip of the iceberg. They also said the number of new jobs added this year is unlikely to be anywhere near last year's.
Said Standard Chartered economist Alvin Liew: 'I would not be surprised to find job creation to be negative in the first half of this year.'
About 227,200 new jobs were added last year, most of them in the first nine months, said MOM when it gave its preliminary estimates on the employment situation here.
In the last quarter, the global turmoil caused job growth to slow significantly and layoffs to rise substantially.
This was inevitable, as the economy contracted by 12.5 per cent against the previous quarter, the biggest quarterly decline ever reported.
Worst off was the export-oriented manufacturing sector as global demand plunged. Layoffs added up to 8,300 or three-fifths of total retrenchments.
HSBC economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde says manufacturing jobs 'look particularly vulnerable' for the rest of the year.
Retrenchment in construction was negligible (200) while the services sector laid off 4,900, signalling that the recession would be far-reaching.
Most of those laid off in services were asked to go in the last quarter. The figure jumped more than five times to 3,200, from 562 in the preceding quarter.
Most were in the financial services and wholesale trade industries, said MOM.
Economist Choy Keen Meng of Nanyang Technological University foresees labour-intensive trade and tourism to bump up the number this year. Retrenchment will rise throughout the year, he added.
With the huge job losses in the last quarter of 2008, Singapore's unemployment rate rose to 2.6 per cent in December, up from 2.2 per cent in September.
But for the resident population, made up of Singaporeans and permanent residents, the corresponding rates were 3.7 per cent and 3.3 per cent.
When the whole year is taken into account, this rate for residents drops to 3.2 per cent, which is below the 2003 rate when Sars sent the economy reeling. The rate then was 5.2 per cent.
In actual numbers, an average of 62,900 residents were unemployed in 2008, against 56,700 in 2007, said MOM.
Last year, both locals and foreigners gained from the bounty of work. Out of the 227,200 new jobs, about 70,400 went to locals and 156,900 to foreigners, most of whom took jobs that locals were not available for.
But the number slowed in the last quarter, when just 26,900 new jobs were added. This is nearly half of the 55,700 jobs created in the preceding quarter.
However, what is significant is that slightly more than half of the 26,900 new jobs went to locals, noted Mr Gan.
Mr Prior-Wandesforde says of this year's job market: 'Even if the economy picks up in the second half of 2009 as we anticipate, the labour market won't improve until well into 2010.'
- The Straits Times
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