More Help for PMETs Retrenched in 2018

15 Mr Ang Wei Neng asked Minister for Manpower (a) how can retrenched professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) who are Singaporeans be better helped to find jobs when 76% of retrenched workers in 2018 are PMETs even though the PMET share of job vacancies has risen to 53% in the same year; and (b) whether the Ministry foresees a worsening structural unemployment in 2019.

16 Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether the Ministry has investigated the reasons for PMETs making up 75.8% of retrenchments in 2018; (b) which sectors have been most affected by the PMET retrenchments; and (c) how many of these PMETs have received retrenchment benefits and what has been the average compensation received.

The Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Home Affairs (Mrs Josephine Teo): Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to take Question Nos 15 and 16 together?

Mr Speaker: Yes, please.

Mrs Josephine Teo: In 2018, about 5,400 local PMETs were retrenched, the lowest level since 2014. This took place against a backdrop of local PMET employment growth of about 34,000. The resident long-term unemployment rate for PMETs, an indicator of structural unemployment, remained low at 0.8%. At present, there are also about 31,500 vacancies for PMETs. Maybe I should add also that the 31,500 is a higher level than in the past few years.

To ensure retrenched workers receive timely employment support, companies are required to notify the Taskforce for Responsible Retrenchment and Employment Facilitation led by Workforce Singapore (WSG) of the retrenchments. Based on the 2017 survey on retrenchment benefits, around 90% of retrenching establishments paid retrenchment benefits to their workers, slightly higher than in 2016. Among them, more than 70% paid retrenchment benefits of at least two weeks of salary per year of service, as recommended in the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Excess Manpower and Responsible Retrenchment. This was up from around 60% in 2016.

Nearly two-thirds of PMET retrenchments in 2018 were in sectors undergoing restructuring, namely, Wholesale Trade, Financial & Insurance Services, Information & Communications and Professional Services sectors. About seven in 10 of retrenched workers who accepted assistance by the Taskforce found new jobs within six months.

To help PMETs access job opportunities, the Adapt and Grow (A&G) initiative has a range of programmes that address gaps in skills or wage expectations. About 17,000 PMETs were placed last year, nearly double that in 2016. PMET placements made up 56% of all A&G placements, similar to the share of PMETs in the workforce. About 5,000 of them participated in Professional Conversion Programmes.

Nonetheless, there are PMET segments we are monitoring closely, such as mature PMET jobseekers as well as those who are long-term unemployed. Such groups receive more training or wage support under the A&G programmes. As announced at the Budget this year, we will extend the Career Support Programme for two years, to continue providing salary support to employers who hire long-term unemployed or retrenched mature PMETs. WSG is also increasing capacity for Professional Conversion Programmes to help reskill jobseekers for new jobs and working upstream with economic agencies and companies to retrain workers at-risk of retrenchment to take up new jobs within the company.

Mr Ang Wei Neng (Jurong): I thank the Minister for the comprehensive reply. I have a few supplementary questions.

Could the Minister elaborate which age group among the PMETs who have been retrenched for the past few years are the most affected? At the same time, which age group has benefited most with the growth of these PMET vacancies last year? And do we know the utilisation rate of SkillsFuture Credit among those retrenched, especially among the PMETs, and whether there are any plans for MOM to top up the SkillsFuture Credit?

Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Speaker, I respectfully request the Member to file a Parliamentary Question (PQ) for them. I do not have the data on hand. But I have qualitatively explained that the sectors involved are those that are undergoing restructuring to the largest extent.

Mr Speaker: Members are reminded that for supplementary questions, please try to keep to the context of the original PQ. Mr Gan Thiam Poh.

Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio): Mr Speaker, I have one question. I just want to know for those employees from this group who are retrenched, how many of them are from multinational companies (MNCs) or foreign-invested companies?

Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Speaker, we do not track the retrenchment numbers according to whether the employer was an MNC or a local company. But I understand where the Member's question is coming from. We do have a sense as to the size of the company. So, if we use the size of the company as a proxy and, say, for example, those that employ 200 and above employees, take them as a proxy for the MNCs, although that is not quite the case. The employers with 200 and above employees, typically, in a year, would be responsible for maybe about 66% or two-thirds of all PMET employment. But for this group, their share of the retrenched PMETs is less, at about 56%.