SINGAPORE – The proportion of larger firms here with foreigners making up at least 30 per cent of their professional, manager, executive and technician (PMET) workforce has remained constant over the last decade, at 20 per cent.
The 2023 figure was higher for small firms employing under 25 PMETs, at 28 per cent, said Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng on May 7.
But on average over the last decade, about 20 per cent of small firms have a foreign PMET share of 30 per cent or more, said Dr Tan in a written reply to a parliamentary question by Progress Singapore Party (PSP) Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai.
Mr Leong had asked for annual data from 2014 onwards of the percentage of companies with a PMET workforce that has more than 30 per cent foreigners, as well as the annual percentage of companies with employees of a single foreign nationality accounting for more than 20 per cent of all PMETs employed.
Dr Tan said that the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) distinguished between small firms with fewer than 25 PMETs and larger firms with 25 or more PMETs.
“This is because small firms have a very small PMET base and their proportion of foreign PMETs will be prone to fluctuations.
“The median number of PMETs in small firms which hire PMETs is only two. This means that even with one foreign PMET, the median small firm would have exceeded the 30 per cent foreign PMET share, or 20 per cent single nationality share,” he added.
Instead, it is important to look at the workforce profile of larger firms with 25 or more PMETs, as these firms tend to have more stable workforce profiles and hire the majority of Employment Pass (EP) holders, Dr Tan noted.
While small firms account for 96 per cent of all firms, they hire only about 30 per cent of EP holders, he added.
A constant figure of 10 per cent of larger firms over the last decade had employees of a single foreign nationality accounting for more than 20 per cent of all PMETs they employed, said the minister.
For small firms, it is about 20 per cent on average over the same period, though the figure rose to 30 per cent in 2023.
“MOM will continue to closely monitor the workforce profile of all firms and adjust our policy levers where appropriate,” said Dr Tan.
In a separate response to PSP Non-Constituency MP Hazel Poa, Dr Tan said an average of 29,200 approved new EP applications over the past five years were subject to the Fair Consideration Framework job advertising requirements, and were initially posted on the MyCareersFuture portal.
About 2 per cent of all new EP applications were rejected for incorrectly indicating that they were exempted from these job advertising requirements, Dr Tan added.
More than 600 EP applications were withdrawn or rejected in the past five years following probes on employers who were identified through data analytics as possibly having pre-selected foreigners when hiring without adhering to the spirit of the requirements.
