Trend of Female Workforce Participation with Younger Children across Income Deciles over Last Five Years

Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Manpower over the last five years, what is the trend of female workforce participation for those with younger children across the income deciles.

Mrs Josephine Teo: Labour force participation for a given group informs us of the percentage of persons (working or not working) who are participating in the labour force. But since individuals without work do not draw an income, labour force participation cannot be measured by income deciles. However, over the past five years, our overall female labour force participation rate for those with younger children has risen. Refer to Table 1 for the breakdown.

On this front, Singapore fares well internationally. Our overall female labour force participation rate for those with at least one child aged below six was ranked amongst the top five OECD countries in 2018, the latest year for which comparison data is available 1 .

Note(s) to Question No(s) 53:

1 Data was available for comparison with 21 OECD countries.