Infographic: Labour Market First Quarter 2020

In the Labour Market Advance Release First Quarter 2020, we observed the early effects of COVID-19. Trends are broadly similar based on final data.

6 Things to Know:

1. Total employment registered its sharpest quarterly contraction on record.
2. Unemployment rates and number of retrenchments rose slightly.
3. Additional indicators covered in this report showed that overall demand for labour has eased in 1Q 2020.
4. The ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons declined to a decade low, though it remained above recessionary lows.
5. While we did not observe a big increase in retrenchments in 1Q 2020, more employers are making other temporary adjustments to manpower by placing staff on no-pay leave or cutting their hours. There were significantly more employees placed on short work-week or temporary layoff.
6. Average paid hours worked, including overtime hours, have declined.

In this release, we also analysed new indicators to highlight the breadth of employment change, and the impact of business closures on employment. A dashboard on sectors which COVID-19 is impacting the most and the least in 1Q 2020 is also made available in the report.

For more information, please refer to the full Labour Market First Quarter 2020 report.

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