ManpowerGroup’s Employment Outlook Survey for the first quarter of 2019 covering Singapore has been published. For the research a representative sample of 645 employers in Singapore were asked, “How do you anticipate total employment at your location to change in the three months to the end of March 2019 as compared to the current quarter?”
As a result, Singaporean employers report moderate hiring intentions over this time frame. While 10 per cent of employers expect to increase payrolls, one per cent forecast a decrease and 86 per cent anticipate no change, resulting in a Net Employment Outlook of +9 per cent.
Once the data is adjusted to allow for seasonal variation, the Outlook stands at +10 per cent. Hiring intentions decline by three percentage points when compared with the previous quarter, but are unchanged in comparison with this time one year ago.
The Net Employment Outlook created by the report is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating total employment to increase and subtracting from this the percentage expecting to see a decrease in employment at their location in the next quarter. All data is seasonally adjusted
From a sector point of view, employers anticipate an increase in payrolls in all seven industry sectors during the forthcoming quarter. The strongest labour market is forecast for the manufacturing sector, where employers report a Net Employment Outlook of +14 per cent. Public administration and education sector employers expect positive job gains, reporting an Outlook of +11 per cent, while the services sector Outlook stands at +10 per cent. Employers in two sectors – the finance, insurance & real estate sector and the mining & construction sector – anticipate modest hiring activity, reporting Outlooks of +7 per cent. Elsewhere, wholesale & retail trade sector employers report an Outlook of +5 per cent, while the weakest hiring prospects for the next three months are reflected in an Outlook of +3 per cent for the transportation & utilities sector.
In comparison with the previous quarter, hiring prospects decline in six of the seven industry sectors, most notably by a considerable margin of 19 percentage points in the public administration & education sector. Finance, insurance & real estate sector employers also report a noteworthy decrease of 6 percentage points, while Outlooks are 4 percentage points weaker in both the mining & construction sector and the wholesale & retail trade sector. Meanwhile, manufacturing sector employers report a slight improvement of 2 percentage points.
Employers in five of the seven industry sectors report weaker hiring intentions when compared with this time one year ago. Considerable declines of 18 and 16 percentage points are reported for the finance, insurance & real estate sector and the public administration & education sector, respectively. Elsewhere, Outlooks decrease by 5 percentage points in the wholesale & retail trade sector and by 4 percentage points in the services sector. However, hiring plans improve by 8 percentage points in the manufacturing sector and are 2 percentage points stronger in the mining & construction sector.