Employment Rate and Redundancy Rate of Jobs Support Scheme Recipient Firms in March 2020 versus Currently

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim asked the Minister for Manpower (a) what is the employment rate for Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) recipient firms in March 2020 versus currently; (b) whether the redundancy rate of the JSS recipient firms has increased and, if so, by how much; and (c) what is the unemployment or redundancy rate among firms that are recipients of JSS versus those that have declined the JSS payouts.

Employment rate is measured at the population level, and not at the firm level.

JSS support has been tiered by the estimated impact of COVID-19 on different sectors. To date, over 150,000 employers have received JSS payouts. Of these, nearly 600 employers have declined or returned their JSS payouts. It stands to reason that these 600 employers have been less severely impacted by the COVID-19 situation, with less need to trim their workforce. The data on their employment reflects this.

Between March 2020 and June 2020, resident employment fell by an estimated 2.7% in firms that received Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) payouts, compared with 0.6% increase in firms that declined JSS payouts.

Data on retrenchment is based on private sector establishments with at least 25 employees. In 2Q 2020, the retrenchment rate among resident employees in firms that received JSS payouts is estimated to be 3.1 per 1,000, compared to 1.8 per 1,000 in firms that declined JSS payouts.