Monthly wages in Singapore rose 7.7 percent to S$2,330 ($1,620) in the 12 months to June 2007, according to the median of an official survey, as a tight labour market and strong economic growth continued to fuel inflation.
Singapore's Ministry of Manpower said in a statement published on its Web site www.mom.gov.sg that the increase compared with annual wage increases of just 1.6 percent from 2004 to 2006 and 1.2 percent from 1998 to 2004.
But the rise in wages, which helped push annual inflation in the city-state to a 16-year high in October, is still lower than annual gains averaging 9.5 percent recorded between 1996 and 1998, the ministry said. It said that adjusted for inflation, the median income increased a preliminary 6.3 percent.
The ministry also said that the number of full-time workers with monthly incomes at or below S$1,200 fell 6.6 percent in the period to 339,500 in 2007, accounting for a fifth of Singapore's full-time workforce.
Growth in the island's resident labour force fell two percent in the year to June, close to trend growth since 1991, after an average annual gains of 4.2 percent in the two years before, reflecting economic growth. Singapore's labour force was 1,918,200 residents, comprising 1,100,100 males and 818,100 females. As of June 2007, 62.6 percent of the resident population aged 15 and over were in employment, the ministry said, the highest since data started in 1991.
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