Employment rate of seniors rose at a faster pace to 31.7%: MOM

SINGAPORE - The employment rate of seniors rose at a faster pace this year, to above pre-pandemic levels, buoyed by efforts to raise their employability, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Wednesday (Dec 1).

Among Singapore residents aged 65 and over, the employment rate rose to 31.7 per cent in June this year, up from 28.5 per cent a year ago, MOM's advance annual labour market report showed.

The employment rate of seniors this year surpassed the pre-Covid-19 rate of 27.6 per cent in 2019.

The news comes after it was announced on Nov 1 that the retirement age for Singapore workers will be progressively raised to 65 years old under the law, with the re-employment age going up to 70, to support older Singaporeans who wish to continue working to do so.

The increased employment is supported by sustained efforts to raise the employability of seniors, such as the Senior Worker Early Adopter Grant, which provides funding support of up to $125,000 to progressive employers who are willing and able to implement higher internal retirement and re-employment ages above the prevailing statutory ages.

Employment rates rose across different demographic groups, reflecting economic recovery and measures supporting employment, said MOM.

The employment rate of youth aged 15 to 24 rose from 30.9 per cent in June last year to 37.2 per cent in June this year, due to more students taking on part-time or temporary work on the side.

For residents aged 25 to 64, the employment rate rose from 80.3 per cent in June last year to 81.8 per cent in June this year.

The improvement was across both genders - from 87.9 per cent to 88.9 per cent for men, and from 73.2 per cent to 75.1 per cent for women.

The number of residents on permanent employment also grew, by 50,900, with 88 per cent of resident employees being permanently employed.

The proportion of employees on fixed-term contracts stood at 8.4 per cent, an increase from the 7.3 per cent in June last year. This was due to the increased demand for temporary manpower for Covid-19-related activities and economic uncertainty. The increase was also driven by the rise in residents on contracts of less than one year.

The resident long-term unemployment rates held steady at 0.8 per cent for professional, managerial, executive, and technical jobs (PMETs), and dipped to 0.9 per cent for non-PMETs after increasing last year.

The non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for resident non-PMETs improved, from 6.4 per cent in June last year to 5.1 per cent in June this year.

The unemployment rate for resident PMETs also edged down, from 3.5 per cent to 3.4 per cent. However, the rates have yet to return to pre-Covid-19 rates.

The elevated long-term unemployment rate compared with pre-Covid-19 suggests that some workers who were displaced earlier faced challenges in their job search, said MOM.

Meanwhile, the resident time-related under-employment rate eased from 4.1 per cent in June last year to 3.5 per cent in June this year, though it remains above pre-Covid-19 rates.

Most groups experienced improvements, including the lower-educated and older workers, who were more affected last year.

The suspension of dine-in services and in-person tuition and enrichment classes during the heightened alert period led to time-related under-employment rates in June this year being the highest in the food and beverage services and education. The rates were also higher than pre-Covid-19 levels.

Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng said he was very encouraged to see the increased employment of seniors.

"With the progressive increase of retirement and re-employment ages starting from 2022, we want to give senior workers the flexibility to stay employed should they choose to," Dr Tan told reporters after visiting staff at Raffles Hotel on Wednesday.

These have to be complemented by efforts to make workplaces more age friendly, such as by redesigning jobs, providing more part-time re-employment opportunities and helping senior workers upskill and reskill to support businesses, he added.

Mr Sulaiman Eman, 59, one of the 75 senior workers above 50 years old employed at Raffles Hotel Singapore, has been a senior butler at the hotel for almost three years.

He was trained under Workforce Singapore's Career Conversion Programme for Hotel Professionals to learn skills such as setting up tables and how to serve and present dishes tastefully in the hotel suites.

Mr Sulaiman's skills now enable him to curate in-suite experiences for guests as a butler. These include wedding proposals and private dinners.

"Having a higher senior employment rate is a good thing - seniors have life experience that can help them become mentors to younger workers. I will try to continue working for as long as I stay healthy," said Mr Sulaiman.

Mr Lee Kim Chwee, 68, who also works at Raffles Hotel, as a senior facilities technician, shared similar sentiments about wanting to work for as long as possible.

"Working makes me happy as I like my job and my colleagues at work are also my friends. It also occupies my time outside of home," said Mr Lee, who has worked at the hotel for seven years.

Said Dr Tan: "With the support of employers and workers, I am confident that the employment rate for seniors in the near future will continue to rise."