Proportion of Workforce Given One-year, Two-year and Three-year Re-employment Contracts at Point of Retirement

Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Manpower (a) what is the proportion of the workforce given one-year, two-year and three-year re-employment contracts at the point of retirement; (b) what is the proportion of the re-employed workforce being able to work till 67 years old; and (c) what is the number of companies that have re-designed their jobs to support the ageing workforce.

Upon reaching the minimum statutory retirement age of 62 every year, well over 90% of private-sector local employees who are eligible and want to continue working are offered re-employment. Two-thirds could continue on their existing contracts without a specified end date. The remainder were offered re-employment on new contracts; in about one-third of these cases, the contract duration was more than one year. The rates of re-employment for eligible workers at older ages i.e. 63 to 67 have also remained consistently high at well over 90%.

The Government’s WorkPro Job Redesign Grant encourages companies to redesign jobs for their senior workers. Since the Grant was started in 2013, over 1,800 companies employing about 20,000 senior workers have benefited from the Grant and redesigned their jobs.

Even without applying for grants, progressive companies may implement age-friendly practices. More than 10,000 companies, employing about 277,000 of the 318,000 (87%) local employees aged 50 & over, reported that they have done so, including job redesign1.