Chris Kuan questions Singapore’s foreign workforce dependency and official statistics
Published
1 min ago
on
3 October 2024
By
The Online Citizen
Former Singaporean banker Chris Kuan has raised important questions about the extent of Singapore’s dependency on foreign labour in a recent Facebook post.
His analysis, which critiques how official statistics are compiled, refers to the data released from the latest Population in Brief report published by the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) of the Prime Minister’s Office.
According to the report, which was highlighted by Channel News Asia on 24 September 2024, Singapore’s total population exceeded six million for the first time, largely driven by growth in the non-resident population.
Of the 6.04 million people residing in Singapore as of June 2024, 1.86 million were non-residents, including foreign workers, domestic helpers, dependents, and international students.
Kuan focuses on this breakdown, which revealed that the non-resident population grew by 5% in the past year, with work permit holders and foreign domestic workers making up a significant share.
Work permit holders alone accounted for 44% of the non-resident population, while foreign domestic workers made up 15%.
These figures, he argues, illustrate the nation’s increasing reliance on foreign labour, which is often overlooked when discussing economic data.
In his analysis, Kuan estimates that over 2 million jobs in Singapore are held by foreigners, including Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs).
According to the Department of Statistics, the number of employed persons is 3.8 million, with 2.4 million being resident workers. However, there is no breakdown of the resident workers into Singaporeans and Permanent Residents who are foreigners—even when asked in Parliament.
He noted that this number represents approximately 51% of the total workforce. When excluding FDWs from the calculation, foreign workers still account for 44% of the country’s jobs.
According to Kuan, this figure underscores how heavily the nation depends on non-resident workers, with more than half of these foreign jobs being in the Work Permit and FDW categories.
Kuan also critiqued the way Singapore’s official statistics are compiled, particularly by the Singapore Department of Statistics (SingStat).
He pointed out that economic measures such as the Gini coefficient, which tracks income inequality, as well as median household income and salaries, are typically calculated based on the resident population alone. This exclusion of nearly 30% of the population, which includes 1.1 million work permit holders and FDWs, creates a skewed perception of the nation’s economic reality.
The CNA report similarly notes that the non-resident population is subject to fluctuations based on Singapore’s social and economic needs, with sectors such as construction and marine shipyard work seeing the largest growth.
The Population in Brief report also highlights that the country’s resident employment has grown in sectors such as financial services, information technology, and professional services, which are predominantly filled by local workers.
Kuan argued that this selective focus on residents when reporting statistics results in an overly positive picture of Singapore’s wealth and economic performance.
He illustrated this point by referencing an online comment made in a Facebook group for Malaysians and Singaporeans living in Japan.
The commenter had falsely claimed that cleaners in Singapore earned S$3,000 per month, higher than the starting salary of fresh graduates in Japan.
Kuan debunked this claim, explaining that the actual salary for a cleaner in Singapore is closer to S$1,500, while fresh graduates in Japan typically earn around S$2,500 or more. He suggested that such misrepresentations stem from the limited perspective offered by focusing only on residents in economic data.
In his post, Kuan expressed concern that many Singaporeans have been “brainwashed” by these incomplete statistics, which exclude the foreign workforce that contributes substantially to the country’s GDP.
He emphasised that much of Singapore’s success in terms of wealth and GDP growth cannot be fully understood without acknowledging the role of non-residents, including Employment Pass holders, S Pass holders, Work Permit holders, and FDWs, as well as foreign students and dependents.
Kuan’s critique has added fuel to the ongoing debate about Singapore’s demographic and labour policies.
As the country continues to rely on foreign workers to support economic growth, the balancing act between resident and non-resident employment remains a central issue.
The CNA report noted that the Singapore government has consistently maintained that the foreign workforce is crucial to complementing the local workforce and allowing businesses to access a broader range of skills from the global talent pool.
However, Kuan’s post raises the question of whether the full economic impact of this dependency is being adequately reflected in public discourse and official statistics.
