UNEMPLOYMENT AND DISCOURAGED WORKERS

Unemployment among both professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) and non-PMETs remained low and stable, said MOM.

The resident unemployment rate edged up from 2.7 per cent to 2.8 per cent for PMETs, and declined from 3.4 per cent to 2.8 per cent for non-PMETs.

Long-term unemployment rates eased for both groups, from 0.7 per cent to 0.6 per cent for PMETs, and from 0.6 per cent to 0.5 per cent for non-PMETs.

Separately, the proportion of discouraged workers, or those not looking for work because they feel their job search will not yield results, stayed low at 7,400 or 0.3 per cent this year.

They are mostly seniors aged 60 and over, followed by those in their 50s. MOM said this reflects “improvements in the education profile of seniors, and not because the extent of discouragement has increased among better-educated seniors”.

For the first time, MOM also included data on overseas work experience by resident workers, which it will continue to collect in subsequent years.

This is part of efforts to strengthen the local workforce’s readiness for corporate leadership, as multinationals commonly seek out leaders with international experience, according to the ministry.

The survey found that 76,000 or 3.1 per cent of resident workers had experience working overseas full-time for at least six months.

MOM’s Comprehensive Labour Force Survey collected data from 33,000 households, with an overall response rate of 86.8 per cent.

 

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article stated that the labour force participation rate started declining in 2021. It should be 2022. We apologise for the error.