Non-PMETs face slight rise in unemployment rate

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The Ministry of Manpower attributed this to cyclical effects from the United States-China trade war that affected manufacturing and retail trade. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

The resident unemployment rate has remained low, but the unemployment rate for those who are not professionals, managers, executives and technicians (non-PMETs) rose slightly from June last year to the same month this year.

The unemployment rate for this group of workers increased from 4 per cent a year ago to 4.7 per cent in June, according to the advance release on the labour force in Singapore by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) yesterday.

MOM attributed this to cyclical effects from the United States-China trade war that affected manufacturing and retail trade. Sectors which saw the highest unemployment rates were retail trade and food and beverage (F&B) services.

MOM also said employers might be hiring more cautiously amid uncertainty, with the proportion of residents on fixed-term contracts rising slightly from 7.2 per cent last year to 7.6 per cent this June.

Maybank Kim Eng senior economist Chua Hak Bin said: "Non-PMET jobs have felt the brunt of the trade war, as manufacturing and trade-related services such as transport and storage and wholesale trade employ more non-PMETs."

He noted that weaker business confidence may have dampened retail spending, as retail sales have been contracting since early this year. "The growing popularity of online retail has also impacted bricks-and-mortar retail businesses, with a number of store closures this year," he added.

Economic uncertainty would have also caused the proportion of contract workers to rise, noted CIMB Private Banking economist Song Seng Wun.

"Companies want to have workers but not full-time, to manage costs. They might also have uncertain order flows, so the short-term contracts help. This might continue to be the trend if this period of uncertainty persists."

Associate Professor Lawrence Loh of the National University of Singapore Business School said non-PMETs, particularly those in sectors dependent on overseas market movements, will always be more exposed to fluctuations.

"It is thus important that this group of workers be continually trained and ungraded so that they can be mobile to (seize) job opportunities in other sectors," he said.

Institute for Human Resource Professionals chief executive Mayank Parekh said the organisation continues to see the repercussions of the ongoing trade frictions. "During uncertain times, businesses will tighten belts and shift towards less reliance on permanent workers, especially for the non-PMET category."

Ms Lim Huishan, general manager of job portal FastJobs Singapore, said the platform has seen more Singaporeans and permanent residents applying on its portal from July last year to June this year, compared with the same period the year before.

The number of applications per person has also risen, which "could be indicative of more difficulty landing the right job". "However, during those periods, we also had an increase in the number of jobs being posted by employers... who continue to hire actively," she said. "We have observed this across the sectors of F&B, retail and other industries, with double-digit percentage growth in the number of jobs being posted."

She added that workers can proactively seek out relevant and specific training to upskill and stay adaptable.

Manpower Minister Josephine Teo noted during a media briefing that the ministry has place-and-train programmes for non-PMETs. These help rank-and-file workers to reskill so they can take on new jobs in different sectors.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 29, 2019, with the headline Non-PMETs face slight rise in unemployment rate. Subscribe