Singapore - More workers re-employed within 12 months in 2011

More workers were re-employed within 12 months of getting laid off in 2011 compared to 2010.

A report released by the Ministry of Manpower said 70 per cent of residents made redundant in the first three quarters of 2011 were re-employed by December 2011.

This is up from the 66 per cent in 2010 and 65 per cent in 2009.

These workers took an average of 2.1 months to regain employment.

The younger workers, as well as those from clerical, sales and service jobs, took the shortest time to secure employment.

However, more workers were laid off in 2011 amid more moderate economic growth.

Some 9,990 workers were made redundant last year, up slightly from 9,800 in 2010.

Workers from the manufacturing sector remained the most vulnerable to redundancy, with 11 workers made redundant for every 1,000.

This was significantly more than in services (3.8 per 1,000) and construction (4.2 per 1,000).

The construction sector saw a fall in layoffs from 1,350 in 2010 to 1,050 in 2011; its share of redundancy fell from 14 per cent to 11 per cent.

Manufacturing's share dipped slightly from 46 per cent to 45 per cent, with a marginal decline in workers affected from 4,490 to 4,460.

Layoffs in services increased from 3,960 or 40 per cent of workers made redundant in 2010 to 4,430 or 44 per cent in 2011.

These figures reflect the services sector's growing share of the workforce, MOM said.

Layoffs fell for clerical, sales & service and production & related workers but rose for professionals, managers, executives & technicians (PMETs).

While the share of redundancy taken by production & related workers declined from 50 per cent to 48 per cent over the year, they were still the highest among the three broad occupational groups.

They remained more vulnerable with 7.3 workers made redundant among every 1,000 workers, compared with 5.5 among PMETs and 2.6 among clerical, sales & service workers.

PMETs accounted for 42 per cent or 4,170 of the workers displaced, while the remaining 11 per cent or 1,080 were clerical, sales & service workers.

The increase in layoffs was smaller for residents (1.3 per cent) than non-residents (2.9 per cent).

The residents' share of redundancy fell over the year by 0.4 percentage-point to 57.4 per cent in 2011.

Restructuring of business processes for greater efficiency and high labour cost were the top reasons for redundancy.

Reorganisation of businesses and high operating costs, excluding labour cost, were the other reasons.

AsiaOne

Business & Investment Opportunities 
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programmes. Many thanks for visiting www.yourvietnamexpert.com and/or contacting us at contact@yourvietnamexpert.com

Dear Reader,

May I invite you to visit our new blog: IIMS-Asean http://iims-asean.blogspot.com/

News and activities of the International Institute of Medicine and Science Asean Chapter of IIMS, Inc. California, USA - Health care, Life Science, Education, Research, Philanthropy. Asean is the economic organisation of ten countries located in South East Asia: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. IIMS is a non-profit organization.