Singapore job slowdown: How it can affect Indians working there

Singapore on Friday reported its eighth consecutive month of declining annual exports. There are also reports indicating that the total employment growth has slowed and job vacancies have decreased for the fourth consecutive quarter.

This has raised concerns about the possibility of a recession in the country, as per a report by the news agency ANI. 

Earlier, economists had predicted a 7.7 per cent decline in non-oil domestic exports (NODX), but the actual figures for May revealed a steeper decline of 14.7 per cent. Additionally, Singapore's economy contracted by 0.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter of the year.

Economist Chua Hak Bin from Maybank expressed concern that the export downturn shows no signs of improvement, deepening worries that Singapore may have entered a technical recession.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released its first-quarter labor market report for 2023, highlighting a decline in job vacancies from 126,000 to 99,600 compared to the same period last year. The report also indicated an increase in the pace of layoffs, with 3,820 employees losing their jobs in Q1-2023, higher than the 2,990 in Q4-2022.

Despite the challenging job market, the number of employed persons in Singapore saw an increase of 33,000 in the first quarter, primarily driven by non-resident workers, including those from India.

This is significant considering Singapore's sizable Indian diaspora. The country's population of 5.45 million includes around 4 million permanent residents, with Indian nationals comprising approximately 350,000 or 24 per cent of the total 1.45 million non-residents in Singapore, according to data from the Ministry of External Affairs Consular Services.

Furthermore, the proportion of Indian professionals in Singapore has doubled from 13 per cent to 25 per cent between 2005 and 2020, as reported by Singapore's Minister of Manpower, Tan See Leng, in a 2021 report.

Consequently, any contraction in Singapore's job market is likely to impact the trend of Indians seeking employment opportunities in the country.

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