Singapore's income is up, with a median salary of over $ 4,400 in Singapore: MOM report

SINGAPORE: The wages of Singaporean workers have increased this year. Median income exceeded S $ 4,400, according to data released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Thursday (November 29th).

The median gross monthly income of Singaporeans and permanent residents employed full-time amounted to S $ 4,437 this year, including employer contributions to the Central Provident Fund.

This compares to a median income of $ 4,232 last year and $ 4,056 in the previous year.

The results are based on the Comprehensive Labor Force Survey conducted in mid-2018 by the Department of Research and Statistics of the Department.

After taking into account inflation, the median gross monthly income increased by 3.5% per year from 2013 to 2018, a level well above 1.9% per annum from 2008 to 2013, indicated the ministry.

Low-income people – those in the 20th percentile – have seen their median income increase by 4.2% per year over the last five years. MOM said this could be the result of a reduction in overseas recruitments and initiatives such as the wage credit program, which co-finances salary increases for low-income Singaporeans.

EMPLOYMENT OF OLD RESIDENTS

The employment rate for Singaporeans and NPs was 80.3% for those aged 25 to 64, which is slightly lower than 80.7% last year. This places Singapore in eighth position for the employment rate among the OECD economies and in fourth position for full-time jobs, the ministry said.

Among those aged 65 and over, the employment rate reached 26.8% in June of this year, compared to 25.8% in the same period last year.

"Efforts to improve the employability of older workers have encouraged more people to stay and people previously out of the labor market to find a job," said MOM.

The increase in the employment rate of the elderly helped offset the impact of aging on the activity rate, the ministry said. The activity rate of residents aged 15 and over was 67.7% in June this year, a rate that has stabilized over the last four years as a result of a uptrend, said MOM.

The unemployment rate for seasonally adjusted professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMET) declined for the second year in a row, from 3% last year to 2.9%.

There was also a general drop in unemployment among non-PMETs in most age groups, the ministry said.

However, the long-term unemployment rate among PMETs increased from 0.7% to 0.8% this year. In fact, more unemployed PMETs aged 30 or 50 and over took longer to find a job, MOM said.