Resident employment in Singapore rose by 28,900 in the last quarter of 2020 as the labour market continued to show signs of improvement.

This marks the metric’s second consecutive quarter of increase and follows the 43,200 rise registered in 3Q2020 ended September, the Ministry of Manpower revealed in its advance estimates on Jan 28.

The latest showing is a turnaround from the contractions in resident employment seen in 1H2020 amidst the movement restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

With this, Singapore’s resident employment had rebounded to pre-Covid levels by the end of 2020, MOM notes.

“This suggests that resident workforce participation was sustained despite the pandemic as more jobseekers joined or remained in the workforce than exited,” the ministry elaborates.

Even so, Singapore’s total employment contracted by 13,500 in 4Q2020, as non-resident employment continued its decline to 42,400.

Specifically, the declines in total employment came from the manufacturing and construction sectors, following reductions in non-resident Work Permit Holders. Conversely, the headcount was stronger – mainly among residents – in the public administration and education sectors.

Overall, resident employment registered a modest growth of 9,300 in 2020, while that for non-residents contracted by around 16% or 181,500.

The decline in non-resident employment was broad-based, with sectors such as accommodation, wholesale trade and retail trade, which had been hit the hardest by the pandemic, registering the sharpest contractions.

Conversely, the expansion in resident employment came primarily from the growth sectors such as info-communications & technology, financial services and professional services, MOM notes.

Meanwhile, unemployment rates declined for the second consecutive month in December 2020, as compared to November. The overall unemployment rate was 3.3% in December, down from 3.2% in the previous month.

The resident unemployment rate had inched down to 4.4%, from the previous month’s 4.6%, while the citizen unemployment rate came in at 4.5% from 4.7% in November.

Aside from this, retrenchments for 4Q2020 came in at 6,100, down from the previous quarter’s 9,120. This is the first decline in the metric and comes after five quarters of consecutive increases, MOM notes.

Touching on the retrenchment numbers across 2020, MOM notes that the levels in every quarter were higher than that in 2019. It expects the full-year figure to reach 26,570 following contractions primarily in arts, entertainment & recreation, wholesale trade and air transport services.

Taking into account the size of the workforce, the incidence of layoffs for 2020 – which came in at 13.0 retrenched per 1,000 employees – remained significantly lower than in past recessions, MOM says.

Looking ahead, the recovery of the labour market is left to be seen, as uncertainties in the economic environment, coupled with weak demand conditions, are likely to continue to weigh on its recovery, says MOM.

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