SINGAPORE – The employment rate of seniors rose at a faster pace this year, to above pre-pandemic levels, buoyed by efforts to raise their employability, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Wednesday (Dec 1).
Among Singapore residents aged 65 and over, the employment rate rose to 31.7 per cent in June this year, up from 28.5 per cent a year ago, MOM’s annual labour market report showed.
The employment rate of seniors this year surpassed the pre-Covid-19 rate of 27.6 per cent in 2019.
The news comes after it was announced on Nov 1 that the retirement age for Singapore workers will be progressively raised to 65 years old under the law, with the re-employment age going up to 70, to support older Singaporeans who wish to continue working to do so.
The increased employment is supported by sustained efforts to raise the employability of seniors, such as the Senior Worker Early Adopter Grant, which provides funding support of up to $125,000 to progressive employers who are willing and able to implement higher internal retirement and re-employment ages above the prevailing statutory ages.
Employment rates rose across different demographic groups, reflecting economic recovery and measures supporting employment, said MOM.
The employment rate of youth aged 15 to 24 rose from 30.9 per cent in June last year to 37.2 per cent in June this year, due to more students taking on part-time or temporary work on the side.
For residents aged 25 to 64, the employment rate rose from 80.3 per cent in June last year to 81.8 per cent in June this year.
The improvement was across both genders – from 87.9 per cent to 88.9 per cent for men, and from 73.2 per cent to 75.1 per cent for women.
The number of residents on permanent employment also grew, by 50,900, with 88 per cent of resident employees being permanently employed.
The proportion of employees on fixed-term contracts stood at 8.4 per cent, an increase from the 7.3 per cent in June last year. This was due to the increased demand for temporary manpower for Covid-19-related activities and economic uncertainty. The increase was also driven by the rise in residents on contracts of less than one year.
The resident long-term unemployment rates held steady at 0.8 per cent for professional, managerial, executive, and technical jobs (PMETs), and dipped to 0.9 per cent for non-PMETs after increasing last year.
The non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for resident non-PMETs improved, from 6.4 per cent in June last year to 5.1 per cent in June this year.
The unemployment rate for resident PMETs also edged down, from 3.5 per cent to 3.4 per cent. However, the rates have yet to return to pre-Covid-19 rates.
The elevated long-term unemployment rate compared with pre-Covid-19 suggests that some workers who were displaced earlier faced challenges in their job search, said MOM.
Meanwhile, the resident time-related under-employment rate eased from 4.1 per cent in June last year to 3.5 per cent in June this year, though it remains above pre-Covid-19 rates.
Most groups experienced improvements, including the lower-educated and older workers, who were more affected last year.
The suspension of dine-in services and in-person tuition and enrichment classes during the heightened alert period led to time-related under-employment rates in June this year being the highest in the food and beverage services and education. The rates were also higher than pre-Covid-19 levels.