ENG-2014 — Page 78

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The Economy

Job vacancies eased back somewhat in 2014, after recording several years of double-digit increases. For the year as a whole, the number of private sector vacancies, though stood high at 76,600, decreased slightly by 0.7 per cent over 2013. Analysed by economic sector, except for a further sizable gain in construction sites (covering manual workers only) (up 32.4 per cent year- on-year), job vacancies saw some noticeable easing in major sectors like import/export trade and wholesale (down 13.7 per cent), social and personal services (down 12.9 per cent), and financing and insurance (down 9.4 per cent) in 2014. Vacancy growth in some domestically- oriented sectors, most notably retail (up 4 per cent), also decelerated alongside the weaker consumption market during the year. However, manpower shortages remained apparent in 2014. The ratio of job vacancies rose slightly further from 59 per 100 job-seekers in 2013 to 60 in 2014, with the ratio of the lower-skilled segment increasing from 64 to 66 while that of the higher-skilled segment staying at 81.

In tandem with generally tight labour market conditions, wages and earnings remained on the rise in 2014. Labour earnings in the private sector posted a further broad-based improvement of 4.3 per cent for 2014 as a whole, with more notable increases seen in professional and business services and financial and insurance activities. Separately, statistics compiled from the General Household Survey, though not strictly comparable to those from the business establishment surveys, suggested that the average employment earnings of full-time employees engaged in elementary occupations (excluding foreign domestic helpers) rose appreciably further by around 7 per cent in nominal terms and 1 per cent in real terms, indicating that labour market conditions remained largely favourable for grassroots workers. For the overall income situation, the median monthly household income (excluding foreign domestic helpers) sustained further year-on-year growth in all quarters of 2014, and rose by 4.1 per cent to $23,100 in 2014 from $22,200 in 2013.

The Property Market

The residential property market was relatively soft in the first quarter, but revived in April and stayed generally buoyant for the rest of the year. While the government's strategy of providing more land for residential development has helped increase the supply of flats in the medium term, the demand-supply balance remained tight. Coupled with the continued low interest rate environment, this rendered support to the market expectation that flat prices would remain firm, and saw many end-users rushing to buy in both the primary and secondary markets.

Transactions showed a sharp rebound in the second quarter and then stayed at a relatively high level (Chart 11). For 2014 as a whole, the total number of sale and purchase agreements for residential property received by the Land Registry surged by 26 per cent over the low base in 2013 to 63,800, though still below the long-term average of 94,400 over 1994 to 2013. Meanwhile, total consideration soared by 45 per cent to $433.4 billion.

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