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Amid favourable economic conditions, the
incidence of retrenchment dropped to a twelve-year low in 2005. |
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Re-employment also improved for retrenched
workers across most age and education groups. |
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These are the key findings from the report
on ¡°Retrenchment and Re-employment, 2005¡± 1 released by the
Ministry of Manpower¡¯s Research and Statistics Department. |
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The report goes beyond the regular reporting
in the quarterly labour market publication to examine the incidence of
layoffs across different industries and occupational groups. It also
analyses the reasons for retrenchment and workers affected by overseas
relocation. |
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The incidence of retrenchment for
professionals, managers, executives & technicians (PMETs) dropped to an
eight-year low of 8.0 per 1,000 and a thirteen-year low of 4.8 per 1,000
for clerical, sales & service workers. |
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By occupation, only production & related
workers recorded a higher incidence of retrenchment (13 per 1,000) from
the previous year (11 per 1,000) as manufacturing saw a rise in layoffs
mainly in the electronics industry. |
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Reflecting the intense cost pressures that
manufacturers operate under, the most common reasons for layoffs in
manufacturing were high operating costs other than labour costs (50%)
and high labour costs (48%). |
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In contrast, restructuring of business
processes for greater work efficiency (52%) and reorganisation of
businesses (35%) were the most commonly cited reasons for layoffs in
services. |
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Construction layoffs were attributed to poor
business/business failure not due to recession (58%) and
recession/downturn in the industry (43%). |
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The number of workers who were laid off in
exercises that involved overseas relocation surged from 1,565 (or 15% of
total retrenched) in 2004 to a six-year high of 3,974 (or 39%) in 2005. |
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This mainly reflected the large-scale
retrenchments that took place in the electronics industry as a number of
manufacturers moved their assembly line jobs to lower-cost countries to
stay competitive. Indeed, the vast majority (94%) of the workers
affected by overseas relocation in 2005 were from the manufacturing
sector. |
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In 2005, on average 61% of local2
retrenched workers found re-employment within 6 months of their
retrenchment, slightly higher than 59% in 2004. The improvement was more
pronounced for the better educated workers. |
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In particular, the re-employment of locals
retrenched from PMET jobs rose from 59% in 2004 to a four-year high of
65% in 2005. Improving from 63% in 2004 to 68% in 2005, clerical, sales
& service workers posted the highest annual average re-employment among
the three occupational groups for the eighth straight year. |
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In contrast, the production & related
workers were the only occupational group that did not experience an
improvement in re-employment rate (55% in 2005 as against 56% in 2004). |
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For More Information |
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The report is available online on the
Ministry of Manpower¡¯s website at
http://www.mom.gov.sg/mrsd/publication. |
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1 Data in the report pertain to workers
retrenched in private sector establishments each with at least 25
employees.
2 Refers to Singapore citizens and permanent
residents. |
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More..... |
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Source:
www.mom.gov.sg Press Release
24 Apr 2006 |
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FrontPage Edition: Tue 25 Apr 2006
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