Singapore employees predicted to pocket higher wages in 2014

As labour crunch intensifies.

According to CIMB, despite another year of likely modest economic growth (official GDP forecast of
2-4%), it remains positive on job prospects in 2014.

Here's more:

Yes, redundancy increased in 2013 (11.4k) from 2012’s 11k (2011: 9.9k) due mainly to the continuous restructuring of the manufacturing sector, but barring external shocks, we estimate that 85k-95k non-construction & FDW jobs can be created in 2014 (97.5 in 2013).

The main constraint will be a still-tight foreign-manpower policy.
The vacancy-to-unemployed ratio touched a record 1.41x in Sep 13, the latest available figure (5-year average was 0.94x).

While job surveys point to weakness in certain sectors (capital markets, manufacturing), hiring should remain brisk in health sciences, hospitality, sales, marketing and the consumer sector.

Barring another downturn, we expect unemployment to stay below 2% SA in 2014. The resident labour force’s participation rate should continue to nudge higher (66.7% in 2013, 66.6% in 2012, 66.1% in 2011).

As the government continues with its productivity drive, we believe companies will have to pay more, considering the many difficulties they encounter in finding workers.

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