THE STUDY OF THE ECONOMICALLY INACTIVE PERSONS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Singapore's small land area and poor resource endowment have made her rely heavily on her human resources for economic growth. But unlike in the 1960's and 1970's, manpower is no longer an abundant resource, thus our future lies in properly applying this resource to bring progress and prosperity to the Nation. To partially augment the labour the labour shortage, we have to import foreign labour. Concern over the consequences of a large foreign workforce has prompted efforts to raise the domestic labour force participation rates. It is thus the aim of this study to assess the feasibility of the pool of inactive persons as a variable means of raising Singapore's aggregate labour force participation rate so that the labour shortage she is facing can be reduced. The total economically inactive persons is separated into more specific sub-groups which will be analysed individually. For each sub-group, factors accounting for the variations in the non-participation rates are discussed. Finally, an attempt would be made to assess which specific sub-groups will emerge as the more feasible sources of labour supply. The study concludes with a summary of the principle findings of the analysis on the economically inactive population.