Singapore beats Japan, other NICs in female workforce participation rate

MasterCard survey reveals other interesting stats.

MasterCard has released the results of its study titled ‘Women Power and Economic Growth in Asia’ which highlights how child care support and availability of elder care are probably the most important factors that determine the participation of women in Singapore’s workforce.

It also revealed that the economic growth of a market is closely tied with the opportunity offered to half its population – women – and besides access to education, more needs to be done in order to achieve equality and empowerment for this segment.

Singapore’s female participation rate in the labor force is the highest when compared to Japan and other Newly Industrialized Countries or NICs: Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan. This is despite the fact that Singapore did not register the greatest improvement in tertiary level enrollment when comparing current levels to 1980.

However all five markets boast high levels of female education and have achieved at least 80% of secondary school enrollment and at least 50% are educated at tertiary level.

In terms of achieving their true economic potential, women in Singapore are slightly ahead of their counterparts in Hong Kong (albeit behind Thailand and China). Similar to Hong Kong, Singapore’s population consists of smaller family units, so there is a need for adequate child care support and elder care networks for women to pursue their career goals and balance their traditional roles as caregivers at the same time.

Despite a fertility rate of 1.2 in 2011, Singapore has successfully bucked the trend by turning to immigration to sustain the labor force. Singapore reported the highest average annual labor force growth rate over a five-year period from 2008 to 2012, when compared to other markets in Asia, USA, United Kingdom and France.