SINGAPORE (Mar 18): In 4Q2018, 79.3% of retrenched residents in Singapore were professionals, managers, executives and technicians. This brings the annual figure of retrenched resident PMETs to 75.8% of all redundancies last year, an all-time high in the city state. Further, these white-collar workers are finding it increasingly harder to find re-employment, compared with blue-collar workers, despite an increase in the number of PMET job vacancies during the year.
Of all residents retrenched, 58% have degrees, 19.9% hold diplomas and the remaining have up to secondary education. The majority of retrenchments in 4Q2018 involved two age groups: 40 to 49 (34%); and 50 and over (33.6%).
In 2008, Singaporean and permanent resident PMETs made up only 49.1% of retrenchments. The figure rose to 66.5% in 2012, then 71.8% in 2016 and 72% in 2017.
The latest figures were released by the Ministry of Manpower on March 14. The report also included details of re-entry into employment. According to the report, only 62.6% of PMETs found a job six months after retrenchment — a rate that is lower than the 71.5% for clerical, sales and service workers, and the 68.2% for production and transport operators, and cleaners and labourers. The ministry said this is because older PMETs and degree holders spend more time seeking jobs that matched their skills and salary expectations.
The latest numbers are in line with trends highlighted in a report on PMET retrenchments published in the previous week’s issue of The Edge Singapore.
The Ministry of Manpower says the higher PMET retrenchment numbers were due to their rising share in the workforce. Still, 4Q2018’s numbers are well above PMETs’ 56% representation in the labour market. Experts say the numbers illustrate a worrisome phenomenon that needs to be dealt with before it worsens. The Edge Singapore spoke to industry observers, who attributed the trends to automation taking over the jobs of PMETs. This is expected to worsen as adoption of technology increases and business models change to adapt to shorter cycles than before. Indeed, MOM’s latest report shows that 65% of the redundancies were due to businesses reinventing for growth.
DBS economist Irvin Seah, who has been tracking these figures for years, says the latest results show that things have turned from bad to worse. “This vulnerable segment has become even more vulnerable,” he says.
OCBC economist Selena Ling says the challenge now is to stem this “rising tide” of PMETs being retrenched, “and facilitate their re-entry into the workforce, given the ageing population, digital disruption and skills obsolescence”. Ling cites skills upgrading and the professional conversion programmes the authorities have put in place, but says this problem should be addressed with increasing urgency.
Seah says the current policies do little to prevent the situation from deteriorating. “Policies are currently tilted towards providing support to retrenched PMETs. There is a need to re-orientate policy focus towards mitigating against such worsening trend,” he says.
Suggestions to stem the rise of retrenchments include raising the minimum salary requirement for Employment Pass holders, so that there would be less competition for mid-level PMET jobs; scaling up the professional conversion programme to include more industries; and topping up the SkillsFuture credits so that PMETs can undergo more training even before being retrenched.
Still, not all is gloom and doom. Overall retrenchment figures have fallen for the year, totalling 10,730 in 2018, compared with 14,720 in 2017 and 19,170 in 2016, making 2018 the lowest year for retrenchments since 2011. Total employment growth in 2018 was also the highest since 2014, with an increase of 38,300 people with jobs.
Job vacancies have also been on the rise since 2017, with 62,300 last December versus 58,800 three months before. There were also more job vacancies for PMETs, with a sharp increase of more than 5,000 in 2018.
