Page 6 - Sloan Programme News Today

SINGAPORE - As governments around the world moved to contain the coronavirus by imposing lockdowns and shuttering businesses, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) had to quickly adjust last years five Budgets. By adapting to the crisis, Singapore averted a deeper economic recession, and prevented its unemployment rate from spiking by a further 1.7 percentage points. In its interim assessment of the impact of key Covid-19 Budget measures released on Thursday (Feb 11), the ministry said the pandemic dem...

4 minute read Overall, there has been broad improvements in the labour market for the period of the report. However, the labour market is still not back at pre-COVID conditions. Uncertainties in the economic environment will continue to weigh on the recovery of the labour market, said MOM.  Here are the main takeaways from the estimations in the preliminary report.  Read Also:  #1 Employment Of Residents (Singaporeans And PRs) Rebounded To Pre-COVID Levels According to MOM’s estimates, the...

This article was first published on DollarsAndSense.sg. The Circuit Breaker in early 2020 started a work-from-home experiment for many companies who never even considered it. Today, even after entering Phase 3 close to a year after COVID-19 was first reported in Singapore, the government has reiterated that work-from-home is to remain as the default work arrangement in Phase 3. Read Also: More than one year on, many employees may still have pain points that haven’t been resolved. For busi...

5 minute read As a self-employed person in Singapore, there are certain money matters that you need to be responsible for and one of them is making your own CPF contributions. Self-employed individuals with a net trade income above $6,000 a year must make mandatory CPF contributions into their Medisave Account (MA). Although contributions into their MA is compulsory, there is also an option to make Voluntary Contributions (VC) into all three CPF accounts – Ordinary Account (OA), Special Accou...

5 minute read Salary has always been a sensitive topic for employers and employees. With COVID-19 still hurting the Singapore and global economy, it may be an even more touchy issue this year. Already, median local wages in 2020 fell for the first time in 16 years to $4,534 (after employer’s CPF contributions). As employers continue to manage business slowdown, with revenue and profits potentially taking a hit, you may have to resort to cutting employee salaries. However, Singapore employers...

Agriculture technology and the startups that innovate around it have become more important than ever in Singapore's vision for food sustainability.

7 minute read Fabled as The Land of Smiles, Thailand is a popular digital nomad destination with Singaporeans and others around the world to live and work. With a lower cost of living, foreigner-friendly culture and a population that can communicate in English, Singaporeans can easily call Thailand home for a few months or longer in their digital nomad journey.  For those interested in becoming digital nomads and working remotely while travelling abroad, the thought of having to set up bank ac...

This article was first published on DollarsAndSense.sg. 2020 has been an unprecedented year with the COVID-19 pandemic. Singapore’s economy is expected to contract 6% to 6.5% in 2020, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). With a record drop in employment (over 100,000 people become unemployed) in the first half of 2020, the labour market has been hard hit. Jobseekers may be disheartened facing these grim statistics. With vaccines in sight and better understanding and mana...

This is more than 13 times the credit extended for the whole of 2019.. Read more at straitstimes.com.

7 minute read Employers in Singapore are typically quite well-versed with the CPF scheme. Besides usually being a CPF member themselves, business owners and those who do payroll also have to contribute to CPF for their employees on a monthly basis when they pay salary. While many are fairly familiar with the CPF scheme, there may also be lesser-known requirements we are not fully aware of. In this article, we detail 10 types of payments to employees (apart from their monthly salary) that busine...