More laid off last year: MOM

SINGAPORE - Singapore saw 11,560 workers laid off last year, slightly more than the 11,010 in 2012, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) yesterday.

"Seen against a larger pool of employees, the incidence of redundancy remained low at 5.8 workers per 1,000 employees, unchanged from 2012,'' said its Redundancy and Re-entry into Employment 2013 report.

Restructuring of business processes for greater work efficiency remained the top reason for redundancy last year, affecting 40 per cent of the workers laid off, up from 37 per cent in 2012. High costs and reorganisation of businesses were the other key reasons cited.

The MOM found that professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) were more vulnerable to redundancy, with 7.3 made redundant for every 1,000 PMETs, compared to production and related workers (5.7 per 1,000) and clerical, sales and service workers (2.8 per 1,000).

Nonetheless, the unemployment rate of PMETs remained lower than other occupations. The number of residents laid off from PMET positions was also "not large" at 4,940.

The report said "two-thirds of residents made redundant in the first three-quarters of 2013 re-entered employment by December".

This rate of re-entry within 12 months of redundancy was slightly lower than that of the preceding cohort in 2012 (68 per cent), weighed down by PMETs who took longer to secure re-entry into employment.

This article was published on April 25 in The New Paper.

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