Singapore average earnings fall, not unemployment

Average earnings fell while there was no drop in unemployment in the second quarter of this year, according to the Singapore labour market survey released by the Manpower Ministry today.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rates remained unchanged at 2.2 per cent overall and 3.2 per cent for Singapore residents, said the report.

There were 84,400 unemployed residents in June 2010. About 16,500 of them have been out of work for more than six months.

Average nominal earnings fell from S$4,310 a month in January-March to S$3,819 a month in April-June.

Average real earnings fell from S$4,263 to S$3,733 as consumer prices rose. The consumer price index was up 3.1 per cent in the second quarter compared with the same period last year. (See the Singapore Statistics Department data here.)

Generally worst off were the 182,300 people in the hotels and restaurants business, with average nominal earnings of S$1,451 a month. See the tables below showing the average earnings and occupations of Singapore's three million working population.

The average earnings do not give the real picture, of course, as several sectors pay less than that. Financial services, which pay well above average, took the deepest cut while information and communications bucked the trend with an increase in earnings.

Average earnings fell despite productivity gains in almost every sector. The only sectors were productivity dropped were business services, down 0.7 per cent, and information and communications, down 3.3 per cent.

The table below shows the average earnings in different sectors. All the figures are from the ministry's second quarter labour market report, which you can download here.

The table below shows Singapore's total working population and which industry employs how many workers. The manufacturing industries employed 543,300 people, the construction sector 386,700 and the service sector 2.1 million people. The largest number of people were in community, social and personal services: 640,900. The best-paid financial services sector employed 172,700 people. All the figures below are in thousands.