INTERNATIONAL Singapore: The land where retirement doesn’t mean retirement
23 July 2012
Just 8% of the 11,500 Singaporeans working for private establishment who reached the retirement age of 62 last year actually chose to retire, Ministry of Manpower statistics reveal.
Mon, 23 Jul 2012
Just 8% of the 11,500 Singaporeans working for private establishment who reached the retirement age of 62 last year actually chose to retire, Ministry of Manpower statistics reveal.
In total, 97% of those turning 62 were offered further employment, with almost all – 92% of the total – accepting this offer.Almost all (95%) of the re-employment contracts offered were renewable up until the age of 65 as long as employees continued to meet fitness and performance requirements.
The total number of private establishments having measures in place to allow workers to work beyond 62 stood at 79%, up from 77% last year.
Unemployment in Singapore stood at 2.1% in March, the last month for which data is available, according to the ministry, and was below 2.5% for the whole of 2010 and 2011, going as low as 1.9% in March of last year.
Meanwhile in the UK in 2011, 31% of employees reaching retirement age asked if they could postpone their retirement, and this request was granted in 81% of cases.
This is according to Ksenia Zheltoukhova, a researcher at the Work Foundation. She also points to data showing that there were 11.7m people above state pension age in 2011, and 12% of these were in employment, up from 7.6% in 1993.
She adds: “New government policies contribute to the changes in individuals’ employment choices. The abolition of the Default Retirement Age in October 2011 means that employers can no longer dismiss someone on the grounds of retirement.”
However, as reported by recruiter.co.uk, a case in April of this year would seem to allow limited grounds for this to happen.
Just 8% of the 11,500 Singaporeans working for private establishment who reached the retirement age of 62 last year actually chose to retire, Ministry of Manpower statistics reveal.
In total, 97% of those turning 62 were offered further employment, with almost all – 92% of the total – accepting this offer.Almost all (95%) of the re-employment contracts offered were renewable up until the age of 65 as long as employees continued to meet fitness and performance requirements.
The total number of private establishments having measures in place to allow workers to work beyond 62 stood at 79%, up from 77% last year.
Unemployment in Singapore stood at 2.1% in March, the last month for which data is available, according to the ministry, and was below 2.5% for the whole of 2010 and 2011, going as low as 1.9% in March of last year.
Meanwhile in the UK in 2011, 31% of employees reaching retirement age asked if they could postpone their retirement, and this request was granted in 81% of cases.
This is according to Ksenia Zheltoukhova, a researcher at the Work Foundation. She also points to data showing that there were 11.7m people above state pension age in 2011, and 12% of these were in employment, up from 7.6% in 1993.
She adds: “New government policies contribute to the changes in individuals’ employment choices. The abolition of the Default Retirement Age in October 2011 means that employers can no longer dismiss someone on the grounds of retirement.”
However, as reported by recruiter.co.uk, a case in April of this year would seem to allow limited grounds for this to happen.
