More local Singaporeans are getting hired amid a tight labour market.
According to a half-yearly report issued on Monday, 15 September 2014, by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) - Statement on Labour Market Developments - the number of local Singaporeans employed in the first half of this year grew by 41,000. This is an increase of nearly 7,000 Singaporeans in the corresponding period in 2013.
The low unemployment rate has caused wages to rise and the real median income for fully-employed Singaporeans grew by 4.6 per cent last year.
MOM expects the hiring of local Singaporeans is expected to continue. It attributed the trend to “a confluence of foreign workforce constraints, higher wages and employers' adoption of flexible work arrangements to attract more women and older workers."
The employment of foreigners has decreased considerably. Excluding maids, the employment growth of foreign workers was 3.8%. The growth was 4.2% the previous year. MOM said the foreign employment growth in the second quarter of 2014 was the lowest since the third quarter of 2009, during the global recession.
MOM also reiterated that “the manpower-lean environment will continue to be a feature of the Singapore economy – The key to firms coping with tighter labour market conditions and sustaining higher wages is through productivity growth.”
It added that productivity must be raised, “most critically in the Construction sector, as well as the more manpower-intensive industries within the Services sector” and that the Government is studying measures to boost the quality of the Construction workforce.
Read more at:
http://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/Pages/PressReleasesDetail.aspx?listid=586#sthash.TMWAB234.dpuf