Singapore's unemployment rate has risen to its highest rate in a decade, while the number of job vacancies is at its lowest – an impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) revealed in its quarterly update that the overall unemployment rate rose from 2.3 per cent in March to 2.4 per cent. Retrenchments rose from 2,670 to 3,220 and 1,537 local employees were affected by business closures, which is more than double of the 628 from the previous quarter.
An additional 4,190 employees were placed on shorter work hours or temporary lay-off – a five-fold increase from the 840 in the previous quarter.
The ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons also tumbled, from 0.84 in December last year to 0.71 in March this year. There were 46,300 job vacancies in March, compared to 52,700 in December. This means that there are only seven openings for every 10 unemployed persons.
The F&B, arts and entertainment, and administrative industries saw the biggest decline in job vacancies, while openings in sectors like healthcare and infocomm technology increased. Public administration and education, professional services and financial services also saw employment grow by more than 2,000 each, although gains in these industries were not enough to balance out the losses in others.
Ahead of the report’s release, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo spoke of the “silver lining” in that many more employees were placed on shorter work weeks or temporary layoffs instead of retrenchments. However, she also cautioned that Singapore has to get ready for more layoffs and to help those who have lost their jobs.
Singapore is facing the deepest recession in its 55-year history. Given the sharp fall in hiring demand globally as well as locally, the labour market conditions are expected to worsen in the second quarter and authorities like Mrs Teo have warned that unemployment is likely to rise and wages drop.
Speaking to The Business Times, OCBC chief economist Selena Ling had said that she downgraded her unemployment forecast for 2020 from a base case scenario of 3.5 per cent to exceed 4 per cent, due to the extended circuit breaker and the fact that there is no sign of a vaccine in sight.
She also added that retrenchments could reach 65,000, or even 100,000 in a "more pessimistic scenario” of a 5 per cent unemployment rate.
We are living in unprecedented times and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is only starting to present itself. It no doubt has many of us fearful of the future. Here at trending.sg, we’ve posted a few articles that we hope will help to tide some of you through the tough times.
Read:
- COVID-19 Financial Support and Schemes That Every Singaporean Should Know About
- 7 Ways To Earn Spare Cash From Home During COVID-19
- 6 Websites With Free Online Courses Where You Can Learn Something New
Here’s to hoping that the world will recover soon from COVID-19, and Singapore along with it.