MOM corrects blogger Leong Sze Hian on unemployment, PMET stats

Singapore — The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) corrected blogger Leong Sze Hian on Monday (Feb 7) publishing a report on the ‘Factually’ website about the blogger’s “inaccurate statements about the labour market.”

Mr Leong had written in a Facebook post on Dec 26, 2021, that the number of unemployed Singapore citizens from March to June 2021 had increased and that the majority of professional, managerial, executive and technical (PMET) jobs were occupied by foreigners.

MOM published the following facts to correct Mr Leong’s statements:

“From March 2021 to June 2021, the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed citizens decreased by 10,400. It then held steady from June to September 2021.”

MOM added that if the non-seasonally adjusted number of unemployed citizens were used, this would lead to the wrong conclusion.

As for foreigners who work in PMET jobs, the ministry said they account for 22 per cent only and are not the majority.

“From 2010 to 2020, the number of local PMETs increased by about 300,000, while the number of Employment Pass and S Pass holders increased by 110,000. This means that not only are there more locals in PMET jobs, the increase in local PMETs significantly outnumbered the increase in foreign PMETs by around 3:1.”

In another Facebook post late on Monday night, Mr Leong referred to a 2019 table published by MOM that showed Singapore’s PMET data.

“The percentage of non-S’porean PMETs was 38.3% (403,500 Non-residents + 249,500 Permanent Residents) and 61.7% S’porean PMETs (1,050,300) in 2019,” he wrote.

He also pointed out that “310,280 New Citizens and 635,533 New PRs were granted from 2005 to 2020, the vast majority of which were in the workforce at the time that their residency status changed, and probably a greater majority would eventually also be in the workforce as they become of working age.”

The blogger wrote that it may be “quite conceivable” that 61.7 per cent of Singaporean PMETs “may actually be estimated to be about 19.7% less to become about 42%, after accounting for the new citizens and new PRs granted?”

He further asked why labour reports published by MOM do not break down the data to distinguish between citizens and Permanent Residents.

However, he apologised to MOM “that as a layman, who has no formal education, training or experience in labour statistics – my simplistic layman’s estimates and interpretations may lack academic vigour.”

As for the unemployment statistics he cited in his Dec 26 post, Mr Leong added, also as a layman, that he had been “particularly concerned” that the increase was a much higher number of 26,300 (non-seasonally adjusted) versus the much lower decrease number of 10,400 (seasonally-adjusted).

“Also, I felt that in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, it may arguably, be equally important to cite the actual number of unemployed citizens (non-seasonally adjusted), rather than just the usual seasonally-adjusted figures in normal times.”

He then asked that since only two of the eleven statistics he cited in his original post were corrected by MOM whether it meant that the other statistics had been correct.

/TISG