Resident unemployment rate up for first time in 10 months
Slight rise of 0.2 percentage point follows tightened Covid-19 restrictions
For the first time in 10 months, Singapore's resident and citizen unemployment rates saw a slight increase, rising 0.2 percentage point each in July following tightened Covid-19 restrictions under phase two (heightened alert).
Figures from the Ministry of Manpower showed that the resident unemployment rate, which covers Singapore citizens and permanent residents, rose from 3.5 per cent to 3.7 per cent, while unemployment among Singapore citizens rose from 3.7 per cent to 3.9 per cent.
The overall unemployment rate in July was 2.8 per cent, up from 2.7 per cent in June.
This most likely reflected "a dip in demand for manpower in affected sectors such as food and beverage (F&B) and retail trade", Manpower Minister Tan See Leng wrote in a Facebook post yesterday.
The phase two (heightened alert) period lasted from July 22 to Aug 18, when curbs were implemented to contain the then growing Covid-19 clusters linked to the Jurong Fishery Port.
This resulted in measures such as the cessation of dining at all F&B establishments and the reduction of social gathering sizes from a maximum of five people to two.
In his post, Dr Tan encouraged companies to "constantly pursue innovation and review their business operations to meet the changing needs of the economy", and also encouraged job seekers to tap initiatives such as placements under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package.
The package was introduced in May last year to provide job, traineeship and skills training opportunities for Singaporeans.
RESILIENT
Dr Tan said as Singapore moves towards becoming a Covid-19-resilient nation, measures will be relaxed further as more sectors of the economy reopen.
"This will help boost manpower demand and allow our labour market to continue recovering," he said.
Analysts feel that the slight bump in the unemployment rates due to temporary measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 under phase two (heightened alert) was expected.
"Since then, the vaccination rates have reached targets and there is a phased reopening ahead, so I think it should not derail the economic recovery or the continued healing of the domestic labour market in 2022," said Ms Selena Ling, chief economist and head of treasury research and strategy at OCBC Bank.
"With the vaccinated travel lanes to Germany and Brunei and more to come, the aviation and hospitality sectors may have some upside in the coming months."
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