SINGAPORE, Dec 3 — The Covid-19 circuit breaker earlier this year significantly impacted the earnings of blue collar workers and low-income individuals, with the average wage for those in the bottom 20th percentile falling 4.5 per cent in June compared with the same period last year.
In contrast, there was a marginal decline (0.3 per cent) in median wages, based on the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Labour Force in Singapore Advance Release 2020 report, which was released today.
Nevertheless, the report added that the group’s overall income level was not worse than last year, after taking into account the government payouts they received.
In June, the average wage of the bottom 20 per cent income earners — or their average gross monthly income from work, including their employers’ Central Provident Fund contributions — was S$2,340 (RM7,121.79), down from S$2,457 in the same month last year. This was a “steep decline”, as MOM put it.
In its report, MOM noted that industries more adversely affected by Covid-19 have a high concentration of lower-income earners.
Many of them are also self-employed workers such as taxi or private-hire car drivers and hawkers whose incomes were impacted by the plunge in tourist arrivals, work-from-home arrangements, and temporary suspension of dine-in services at food and beverage outlets during the circuit breaker period, it said.
MOM’s findings were based on data obtained from its mid-year Comprehensive Labour Force Survey, which coincided with the country’s lockdown from April 7 to June 1 when there were curbs on business activities and movement.
Income trends
Overall, wages were slightly depressed, with real median income growth at -0.3 per cent, compared to last year’s 2.2 per cent. MOM,
however, said that real median income growth over the long term, or last five years, remained close to the preceding five years, which took in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2007.
The growth between 2015 and 2020 is estimated at 2.7 per cent per annum, while the growth between 2010 and 2015 was at 3.1 per cent per annum.
Comparing these two five-year periods, the real income growth of the bottom 20 per cent — estimated to be 2.9 per cent per annum — remained slightly higher than the median of 2.7 per cent.
Overall employment
The report also highlighted that a rise in senior employment was met with a decline in youth employment this year, which resulted in a fall in the employment rate for residents aged 15 and over from 65.2 per cent last year to 64.5 per cent — the lowest rate since 2014.
The report also found that the drop in the employment rate of youths, referring to those aged between 15 and 24, from 33.9 per cent to 30.9 per cent was partly due to young people choosing to study longer.
Employment rate of residents in their prime working age — those aged 25 to 64 — “remained high” at 80.3 per cent, close to the average of 80.5 per cent in the last five years, despite the impact of Covid-19 on the economy, MOM said.
Among this group, the employment rate for males fell from 88.8 per cent to 87.9 per cent while that for females fell marginally from 73.3 per cent to 73.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, the employment rate for residents aged 65 and over rose by 0.9 percentage points to 28.5 per cent.
MOM attributed this to the ongoing efforts to raise the employability of senior workers including a scheme in 2011 which gives companies subsidies for employing such workers.
Unemployment rates of non-PMETS, PMETS
Non-professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) saw their unemployment rate increase more than PMETs.
The resident unemployment rate for non-PMETs increased from 4.7 per cent to 6.4 per cent, while the corresponding rate for PMETs increased from 2.9 per cent to 3.5 per cent.
MOM said that both rates are below the peaks in previous recessions. Among non-PMETs, unemployment rates rose steeply across all age groups, while the increase for PMETs was comparatively smaller, except for older PMETs aged 50 and over.
PMETs in their 40s experienced a larger increase in long-term unemployment rate compared to other age groups.
Among non-PMETs, long-term unemployment rate rose for residents aged below 30 and in their 40s but held steady for residents aged 50 and over.
MOM said the increase in unemployment rates for both PMETs and non-PMETs were driven by shorter-term unemployment periods, as the increase in their long-term unemployment rates was considerably smaller at 0.1 percentage points for non-PMETs and 0.2 percentage points for PMETs.
It added that it is monitoring the long-term unemployment rates closely. — TODAY
