Employment in Singapore grew by 4,700 in Q1 2024, driven entirely by resident employment growth: MRSD

Among residents, the increase in employment occurred mainly in financial & insurance services, public administration, health & social services, administrative & support services, and education.

Singapore's labour market continued to expand in Q1 2024, but at a slower pace than in Q4 2023, according to the just-published Labour Market Report First Quarter 2024.

Amond the data curated in the report, the Manpower Research and Statistics Department (MRSD) shared updates on the country's employment, unemployment, and retrenchments in the quarter. Excerpts of the findings in each area are as follow:

Employment

Resident employment

As highlighted, employment in Singapore grew by 4,700 in Q1 2024, which the Department stated was driven entirely by resident employment growth (5,500). Non-residents, on the other hand, experienced negative employment change (-800) for the first quarter since Q3 2021 (-21,500).

Among residents, the increase in employment was driven by financial & insurance services, public administration, health & social services, administrative & support services, and education. These sectors also saw higher resident employment change in Q1 2024 compared to Q4 2023, MRSD noted.

Meanwhile, resident employment continued to decline in sectors such as retail trade and food & beverage services, after observing seasonal increases in Q4 2023.

Non-resident employment

Non-resident employment recorded a decline in Q4 this year, driven mainly by the construction and manufacturing sectors. According to the MRSD, these sectors had previously seen positive employment growth for the past two years, i.e., from Q4 2021 to Q3 2023, with the lower Dependency Ratio Ceiling for the Construction and Process sectors having come into effect.

The Department explained: "The reversal in employment trends for these two sectors mirrored the economic performance. Pre-pandemic, non-resident employment had also declined between Q3 2016 and Q1 2018 due to sluggish demand in the construction and marine shipyard sectors."

Unemployment

Coming to unemployment figures — the rates of unemployment recorded in March 2024 was an inch-up from what was recorded in the previous months (overall: 2.1%; resident: 3.0%; citizen: 3.1%), although they remained within the range observed during non-recessionary periods.

Zooming into the figures, a slight growth in resident long-term unemployment rate was observed from December 2023 (0.7%) to March 2024 (0.8%), following a near eight-year low of 0.5% recorded in June 2023.

The increase, as detailed in the report, was largely attributed to residents aged below 30 (from 1% to 1.2%), with possible reasons cited being that individuals were holding out for a better job, or taking time to explore different career options post-graduation.

This group was followed by those aged 60 and above (from 0.7% to 0.9%), which the report noted remained comparable to pre-pandemic levels of 0.8%. 

Retrenchment

Finally, looking at data on retrenchments in Q1 2024, Singapore continued to record a decline in the number of retrenchments taken place in the quarter (Q4 2023: 3,460; Q1 2024: 3,030), attributed to declines in the number of retrenchments from outward-oriented sectors such as wholesale trade (Q4 2023: 510; Q1 2024: 330) and Electronics Manufacturing (Q4 2023: 540; Q1 2024: 190). 

At the same time, while the information & communications sector also saw a decline in the number of retrenchments (Q42023: 620; Q1 2024: 580), the level remained elevated when compared to other industries.

In terms of reasons stated for retrenchments, across the economy, more firms cited business reorganisation or restructuring in Q1 2024 as the reason for retrenchment, while retrenchments due to concerns of recession or downturn and high costs have declined.

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