UNEMPLOYMENT STATISTICS

Mr Chng Hee Kok asked the Minister for Labour if he will supply the latest unemployment statistics and the percentage breakdown by age groups.

The Minister for Labour (Mr Lee Yock Suan): Mr Speaker, Sir, as at June 1988, the unemployment rate was 3.3%. The unemployment rates by age groups were as follows: Age Group Unemployment Rate (%) 15-24 5.6 25-34 2.9 35-44 2.4 45-54 3.0 55 & over 1.8 The 15 to 24 age group had a higher unemployment rate because of the entry of fresh school leavers and graduates into the labour market.

Mr Chng Hee Kok (Tiong Bahru GRC): Sir, will the Minister confirm that we have reached a stage of full employment?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Yes. 3%, I think, is equivalent to what is known as "frictional unemployment"; in other words, people moving in between jobs. But that does not mean that there are no people left who can be tapped from our labour market for employment. For example, there are about 300,000 Singaporeans who are above the age of 55, and about 75% of them are not working or looking for work. So if you can encourage them to continue working or re-enter the labour market, there will be a big potential labour force to be tapped.

Dr Lee Siew-Choh: Sir, the Minister has given us the percentage. Would he be good enough to let us know the numbers?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Mr Speaker, Sir, our workforce is about 1.2 million. So 3.3% would be about 40,000 workers who are in-between jobs.

Mr Choo Wee Khiang (Marine Parade GRC): Would the Minister for Labour tell us that since there is virtually full employment in Singapore, why not allow more foreign workers to come to Singapore?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Mr Speaker, Sir, I do not know whether the Member was present yesterday when I gave the answer to a similar question. Perhaps I could give him a copy of my reply.

Dr Lee Siew-Choh: Would the Minister tell us that there are quite a number of people who have not registered and whether the numbers are included in his calculations?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Mr Speaker, Sir, the number of people who have registered for employment assistance with my Ministry has dropped from about 10,000 to the region of 4,000. The unemployment figure is actually assessed from our labour force survey. It is the sum total of people who are looking for jobs, not only people who are registered with the Employment Service.

Mr Choo Wee Khiang: Sir, would the Minister consider allowing the existing foreign workers to take up part-time jobs so as to ease the labour shortage problem?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Sir, this is something that has to be studied. The problem is how to control it so as to avoid abuse.

Mr Loh Meng See (Kampong Glam): Sir, does the Minister have breakdown figures of the two sexes, how many of the unemployed are males and how many are females?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: I do not have the figures here. I can supply them to the Member if he wishes. Roughly, the percentage would be about two-thirds males and one-third females, corresponding to our workforce.

Dr Lee Siew-Choh: A supplementary question, Sir.

Mr Speaker: I will allow one more.

Dr Lee Siew-Choh: Would the Minister consider those people who work a couple of months a year and are actually semi-jobless as jobless people, Sir?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: We classify the unemployed as those people who are actively looking for a job and who do not have a job. I do not know what is the tendency of the Member's question. He seems to be trying to fish out the big army of unemployed that he referred to the other day. The fact is that we have more than 150,000 foreign workers.