SINGAPORE - An average of 800 Employment Pass (EP) applications are received per week by the Manpower Ministry (MOM) after the positions have been posted on the national Jobs Bank, Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say said on Monday.

In a written response to a Parliamentary question by Non-Constituency MP Gerald Giam, Mr Lim said that about one third of these were submitted within a week of the end of the mandatory 14-day period during which companies must advertise for the position on the Jobs Bank, for Singaporeans to apply.

This is a requirement under the one-year-old Fair Consideration Framework.

Based on a weekly average, there are about 68,000 job vacancies on the portal, which was launched in July last year.

Of these, nearly three quarters are for professionals, managers, executives, technicians or associate professionals, said Mr Lim.

Firms that have a low ratio of Singaporeans to foreigners compared with the industry average, and who are weak in their commitment to fair consideration of Singaporeans when it comes to hiring and developing staff, could be banned from hiring foreign professionals if they do not cooperate with MOM, Mr Lim wrote in a blog post last week.