More and more jobs created but not enough S'poreans to fill them
By Julia Ng, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 29 February 2008 1200 hrs

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SINGAPORE: The Singapore economy has been creating more and more jobs but there are not enough Singaporeans to fill them.

So companies are turning more and more to foreigners. Hence the proportion of new jobs going to Singaporeans has been falling over the years.

A Manpower Ministry study noted that in the three years between 2004 and 2006, although increasingly more jobs were created each year, those going to Singapore citizens fell from 45 percent to 40 then 37 percent in 2006.

Latest MOM numbers showed 360,700 jobs were created between 2004 and 2006. Foreigners took the largest share, clinching 156,500 jobs, with 141,700 going to Singaporeans and 62,500 to permanent residents.

This is the first time employment figures have been broken down into the three individual groups of employees in Singapore. Previously, reports on such nature put Singaporeans and permanent residents together into one group and foreigners another.

The Manpower Ministry said the trend of falling proportion of new jobs for Singaporeans "is typical of periods of robust and sustained economic growth" which led to more jobs being created.

It said: "With the lowest unemployment in ten years and employment at an all-time high, the number of available Singaporean citizens to take up new jobs over the next few years will shrink.

"This is already occurring as shown by the proportion of employment gains going to Singapore citizens, which dropped from 45% in 2004 to 40% in 2005 and to 37% in 2006. This is typical of periods of robust and sustained economic growth, with strong employment creation.

"Going forward, as a result of falling fertility and ageing, we will have to tap on older workers and women to maintain the size of our citizen workforce."

Wong Su-Yen, managing director of ASEAN Mercer Singapore, said: "Increasingly companies are finding that there just isn't enough people anywhere to go around. And so they're trying to find people wherever they can.

"There's obviously a large gap between what the population here is producing as opposed to how many jobs required to sustain the economy....

"Even if they're getting a smaller slice of a bigger pie, in reality everybody who wants to have a good job is getting the jobs that they're looking for. It just means that the economy is growing faster than what the local population can support.

"The other dimension to this is that labourers are a lot more mobile, so in fact what you're seeing is that many Singaporeans are working elsewhere too. So you've got Singaporeans working in China, in Vietnam, in the Middle East.

"So it's really a question of mobility and that's going to shrink the population here available for work, which just means that more people are going to be coming in."

But in terms of absolute numbers, MOM said more Singaporeans are getting jobs - nearly 65,000 were employed in 2006, up from 32,000 in 2004.

And according to the MOM report, even though Singaporeans were taking up a smaller number of the new jobs, nearly two thirds of them were employed in well-paying positions as PMETs - professionals, managers, executives and technicians. These pay above the median monthly income of $2,300.

The bulk of Singaporeans also found new jobs in the services sector in 2006. Close to seven in 10 service workers were Singaporeans, with the rest going to foreigners and permanent residents.

Foreigners had a higher employment share in manufacturing and construction, where many took up labour-intensive jobs.

MOM said the more demanding working conditions in these positions are less attractive to Singaporeans.

In 2006, MOM issued about 110,000 S-Passes and Employment Passes for foreign workers earning at least $1,800 and $2,500 respectively and 646,000 work permits for foreign workers earning not more than $1,800.

In construction, foreigners made up three out of five workers (or 61%) in the sector. 31% were Singaporeans and 8.2% were permanent residents.

In manufacturing, less than half of them (or 44%) were Singaporeans.

Click here for the full MOM reports.