Pioneer SMC MP and assistant secretary-general of NTUC Patrick Tay had asked the minister for manpower for the annual breakdown of Singaporean, Permanent Resident and foreign Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs) in industries, such as manufacturing, construction, services, banking and finance, IT and communications, and professional services for the past decade, as well as the unemployment rate of Singaporeans and PRs who are PMEs by age and gender.

MOM replied him with this table attached.

Here it is:

Hiring breakdown

Unemployment breakdown

Tay also talked about what these numbers might mean.

"Noted from the comments and sharing these two days that some have looked at Table 1 below and sought to suggest that the proportion of citizens among the total number of PMETs in Singapore has decreased from 64.2% in 2011 to 61.7% in 2019. The implication suggests that Singaporeans are losing out on PMET jobs.

Then again, over the last decade, more citizens have been able to get jobs, from 60.0% (Jun 2009) to 63.6% (Jun 2019). Among employed Singapore citizens, 47% were in PMET jobs in Jun 2009, and by Jun 2019, this has gone to 56%. From 2010 to 2019, there was an increase of 250k citizens in PMET jobs i.e. from 743k (Jun 2009) to 1,050k (Jun 2019). The data outlines that more Singaporeans have taken up jobs, and more Singaporeans are in PMET jobs.

Notwithstanding, I think we can try to do even better...the oft highlighted point is...would we rather have fewer Singapore citizens in PMET jobs, but these citizens have a bigger share of all PMET jobs in Singapore? That will certainly benefit the citizens who can secure the PMET jobs, but what about expanding opportunities for all? Having said that, it is important to Strengthen the Singaporean Core.....and MOM adjusts work pass policies regularly and has slowed down the number of foreign PMETs in recent years.

If you look at the increase in foreign PMETs in the last five years (2014-2019) in Table 1, it was about 10k/year. This is less than a third compared to 33k/year from 2010-2014. At the same time, in the last five years (2014-2019), the number of Singaporean PMETs grew by about 32k/year. In other words, for every 1 foreign PMET added to the economy, about 3 more Singaporeans took up PMET jobs.

Moving forward, we need to focus our efforts on fair and progressive hiring practices. There may be some companies that don’t play fairly by the rules. We should focus on weeding them out and Strengthening the Singaporean Core at the same time!"

The figures presented here for PMETs (professional, manager, executive and technical) might get number-heavy so here's an easier way to view the numbers by industry.

Manufacturing

For manufacturing, at the start of the decade, Singapore citizens made up about 56.4 per cent of PMET manufacturing jobs, with PRs making up 24.1 per cent and non-residents rounding up the final 19.5 per cent.

The total number of manufacturing jobs, according to the document, was 216,000 in 2010.

In 2019, the percentage of Singapore citizens in manufacturing was 51.7 per cent, PRs at 17.7 per cent, and non-residents at 30.5 per cent.

The total number of manufacturing jobs, according to the document, was 200,600 in 2019.

Construction

For construction, at the start of the decade, Singapore citizens made up about 51.9 per cent of the PMET workforce, PRs came in at 22.7 per cent, and non-residents at 25.4 per cent.

The total number of construction jobs according to the document was 70,400 in 2010.

In 2019, the percentage of Singapore citizens in construction is 43.9 per cent, PRs at 18 per cent, and non-residents at 38.1 per cent.

The total number of construction jobs according to the document was 89,700 in 2019.

Services

For services, at the start of the decade, Singapore citizens made up about 66.7 per cent of the workforce, PRs came in at 16.3 per cent, and non-residents at 17 per cent.

The total number of service PMET jobs, according to the document, was 941,000 in 2010.

In 2019, the percentage of Singapore citizens in service was 64.1 per cent, PRs at 14 per cent, and non-residents at 21.9 per cent.

The total number of service jobs, according to the document, was 1.4 million in 2019.

Here are the total PMET workforce numbers.

The total number of PMET jobs in 2010 was around 1.25 million.

Some 64.2 per cent were Singapore citizens, 18.1 per cent PRs, and 17.7 per cent non-residents.

The total number of PMET jobs in 2019 was 1.7 million.

Some 61.7 per cent were Singapore citizens, 14.6 per cent PRs, and 23.7 per cent non-residents.

Here is Tay's full post.

Image from Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images