SINGAPORE: The Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) helped 27,000 firms to hire 130,000 local workers over three months, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in its latest Jobs Situation Report on Wednesday (Mar 31).
The wage subsidy scheme encourages companies to hire more Singaporeans and permanent residents amid the COVID-19 economic fallout. It was first announced in August last year and meant to last for five months, but was given an additional S$5.2 billion boost in Budget 2021 and extended until September.
Advertisement Advertisement The JGI has helped to boost the hiring of locals in some companies to "levels higher than in 2019”, said MOM.
[h=3]READ: Budget 2021: S$5.4 billion boost to SGUnited to support hiring of 200,000 locals[/h][h=3]READ: Budget 2021: S$24 billion to transform businesses and workers over next three years[/h]From September to November last year, the 27,000 firms hired a median of two locals, higher than the median of one local hire in the same period a year ago. Nearly all of these firms were small- and medium-size enterprises.
Advertisement Advertisement Almost six in 10 of the firms hired one to two local workers, while the remaining hired more.
Top hiring sectors include food services and retail, as well as growth areas such as wholesale trade, professional services, and information and communications. The growth sectors accounted for nearly four in 10 of those hired between September and November, while food services and retail sectors hired one in five of all JGI-supported workers.
MOM said companies hired from “a wide pool of job seekers”, including mature workers and those who were unemployed or from a different sector.
For instance, about half of the 130,000 workers were not employed at the point of hire. More than a quarter had been out of work for more than six months.
Advertisement Six in 10 were previously employed in a different sector. The same ratio also earned the same or higher wages compared with their previous jobs.
Almost half of the workers were mature workers aged 40 and above, while one-third were aged 50 and above.
[h=3]IN FOCUS: After COVID-19, where are the Singapore economy, workforce headed?[/h]The Manpower Ministry said it encourages companies “to be more open-minded” towards job seekers from diverse backgrounds, as unemployment rates decline and with the job market seeing "pockets of tightness". "This will better enable them to fill their vacancies and support their businesses," it said.
Under the JGI, companies receive a 25 per cent subsidy of the first S$5,000 of local hires' gross monthly salaries for up to 12 months. This translates to up to S$15,000 of wage support for each local hire, said MOM.
Employers who hire mature workers, people with disabilities and ex-offenders receive more support – up to S$54,000 per hire with effect from Mar 1, said the ministry.
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