29 June 2007

A key finding of the Ministry's Report on Wages in Singapore, 2006 is that jobs requiring professional and specialised training continued to command higher starting salaries in 2006, reflecting the premium placed on skills and knowledge.

Professionals' wages started at the median gross wage of $2,000, followed by $1,887 for associate professionals & technicians in June 2006.

Comparatively, occupations requiring lower entry skills such as cleaners, labourers and related workers had the lowest median commencing gross wage at $600.

Wages were also commonly observed to rise with age. The exception was those in lesser skilled blue-collar occupations whose wages typically declined after peaking in their thirties, as the work involved is largely manual.

Report on Wages in Singapore, 2006 presents comprehensive information on wages, such as wage changes and bonuses paid in various industries, as well as salaries of over 300 occupations.

The report also includes information on the extent to which employers have restructured their wage systems, in line with the recommendations of the Tripartite Taskforce on Wage Restructuring.

Besides the Report on Wages in Singapore, 2006, MOM's Manpower Research and Statistics Department (MRSD) has published two other annual statistical publications, namely the Singapore Yearbook of Manpower Statistics, 2007 and Manpower Statistics in Brief, 2007. The information provided will help job-seekers, employers and employees make better informed decisions on career and human resource matters.

The Singapore Yearbook of Manpower Statistics, 2007 provides a wide range of statistics on the labour market situation. These include key data on the labour force, job vacancies, retrenchments, labour turnover, wages, hours worked, conditions of employment, labour relations, workplace injuries, higher education and skills training.

The Manpower Statistics in Brief, 2007 summarises key data from ‘Report on Wages in Singapore, 2006' and the ‘Singapore Yearbook of Manpower Statistics, 2007' in a pocket-sized booklet.

The three annual statistical publications can be downloaded free of charge from the Ministry of Manpower's website.