Great news: Singapore employment is up

SINGAPORE - Total employment for the third quarter of 2009 grew by 14,000, offsetting the losses of 6,200 and 7,700 in the first and second quarters of the year respectively.

This increase resulted in the total employment in September 2009 recovering to around Dec 2008 level.

Services and manufacturing continued to expand at a higher rate - 12,700 and 7,400 respectively - than previous quarters. Manufacturing continued its fourth consecutive quarter of decline, albeit at a lower rate (-6,400) than the 1st two quarters of the year.

Meanwhile, the unemployment figure rose slightly to a seasonally adjusted 3.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2009, from 3.3 per cent in June 2009, but below the peak of 4.8 per cent in September 2003 due to the SARS outbreak.

However, among the resident labour force, the rate increased to 5 per cent in June 2009. Long term unemployment has also risen, with the number of job seekers looking for a job for over 25 weeks almost doubling from 9,600 in September 08 to 18,400 in September 09.

Re-employment rose as well, with over half of residents retrenched in the second quarter of the year re-employed by September 2009. Job vacancies also rose 34,900 in September 09, up 42 per cent from June 09.

From AsiaOne Tue, Dec 15, 2009

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Things you should know about CPF for PR holders (part 2)

I. WHAT IS CPF

CPF contributions are payable once a foreign employee obtains SPR status. To help the
employee adjust to the lower take-home pay, both the employer and employee will contribute CPF at graduated rates for the first two years.

The first year rate is payable on the date of your employee’s conversion to a SPR. The second and third year rates are payable from the month following the anniversary of the employee’s conversion to a SPR.

For example, if your employee became a SPR on 23 January 2009, the first year rate would apply from 23 January 2009. The second and third year rates will apply from 1 February 2010 and 1 February 2011 respectively.

Foreigners, who have obtained their SPR status, should only maintain one CPF account.
Employers should inform such employees to merge their previous CPF account (if any)
with their new CPF account.

CPF contributions for SPRs into CPF accounts with the prefix SA/SB/SD/SF/TC/TF will be rejected. Merging of CPF accounts can be done by submitting clear photocopies of the documents listed below:

• Singapore Identity Card

• Passport

• CPF Membership Card

• Entry/Re-entry permit

Below is the total CPF contribution rate

II. TYPES OF SPR CONTRIBUTIONS

SPR employees and their employers have the option to jointly apply to CPF Board to contribute at other prescribed rates during the employee’s first two years of obtaining the SPR status.

A summary of the options available is as follow:



Option (1) applies once your employee obtains his SPR status. For options (2) and (3), the employer and employee must jointly apply to the Board using the prescribed form CNR/PR/94A. Once the application is approved, it is irrevocable. These rates will cease to apply upon a change of employment within the first two years, i.e. the rates will go back to the graduated rates.

CPF contribution rates for SPR first year and second year:



For further infos and want to calculate on how much do you need to contribute to CPF, simply click HERE.

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Foreign Workers in demand

COMPANIES that rely on foreign workers want the Government to let them hire more of them, according to a survey.

The call is particularly intense from contractors and manufacturers, who feel the quota should be adjusted for specific sectors. Foreign workers form up to 70 per cent of the workforce in these two sectors.

Overall, almost half of the businesses surveyed are unhappy with the foreign worker quota policy.

They want it raised in order for them to meet orders, which have been increasing in the past few months as Singapore's economy claws its way out of the red.

But such a move could hurt Singapore's competitive edge, said economics professor Davin Chor from Singapore Management University.

'Long-run growth depends on the capacity of our economy to consistently improve on our productivity and the way we tap into cutting-edge technologies,' he said.

*From The Strait Times- 9th December 2009

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