By Massita Ahmad
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SINGAPORE, Sept 14 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Total employment, excluding Foreign Domestic Workers (FDW), in Singapore contracted by 129,100 in the first half of 2020 (1H 2020), the largest half-yearly reduction on record, according to the republic\u2019s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citing the Labour Market Report Second Quarter 2020, Manpower Research & Statistics Department, MTI said foreign employment fell by 5.7 per cent or 66,400, sharper than the 2.7 per cent or 62,700 decline in local employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cForeign cutbacks were also more widespread across sectors,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ministry said foreign employment cuts in 1H 2020 were mostly among Work Permit and Other Work Passes of 51,100, followed by S Pass of 11,200 and Employment Pass of 4,100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Excluding Construction, Marine Shipyard and Process, the decline in Work Pass was 32,900 in 1H 2020, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MTI noted that the seasonally adjusted unemployment overall rates rose over the quarter in June 2020 to 2.8 per cent from 2.4 per cent, but remained below previous recessionary peaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the retrenchments rose sharply to 11,350 in 1H 2020, said the ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis was higher than during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) period in the 1H 2003 of 10,120, but lower than other past recessionary peaks,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, with the temporary stoppage or curtailment in business activities during Circuit Breaker, another 81,720 employees were placed on short work-week or temporary layoff in 2Q 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis likely reduced the number of retrenchments,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the labour market outlook, MTI said that there are several areas of strength in the Singapore economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, the ministry said the Electronics and Precision Engineering clusters are likely to expand, driven by sustained global demand for semiconductors and semiconductor equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Biomedical Manufacturing cluster is also expected to grow, supported by the production of pharmaceutical and biological products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Likewise, the Information & Communications sector is projected to expand this year on the back of continued demand for IT and digital solutions, while growth in the Finance & Insurance sector will be supported in part by the strong demand for digital payment processing services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJob vacancies also rose in several sectors,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, Sept 14 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Total employment, excluding Foreign Domestic Workers (FDW), in Singapore contracted by 129,100 in the first half of 2020 (1H 2020), the largest half-yearly reduction on record, according to the republic\u2019s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). Citing the Labour Market Report Second Quarter 2020, Manpower Research & […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":64939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[288,300,318],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92188"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}