Real average earnings grew a miniscule 0.7%

Skyrocketing inflation and an ever-tightening labor market to be blamed for the pittance of progress.

The deterioration worsened in the fourth quarter of 2011, which saw real average earnings dip 1.4% after just a 0.2% decline in the preceding quarter.

On a yearly comparison, the real average earnings growth of 0.7% in 2011 was way below the 2.7% improvement in 2010.

"Nominal average (mean) monthly earnings rose by 4.0% over the year in the fourth quarter of 2011, continuing the recent trend of slowing earnings growth starting from the second quarter. After adjusting for inflation, the real average earnings declined by 1.4% in the final quarter of 2011, after dipping by 0.2% in the preceding quarter," said the Ministry of Manpower (MoM) in its 2011 Labor Market report.

"For the whole of 2011, nominal average earnings grew by 6.0%, after increasing by 5.6% in 2010. Weighed down by higher inflation in 2011, the real average earnings rose by 0.7%, following the gains of 2.7% in 2010," it said.

Even worker productivity became anemic in 2011, dwarfing down to 1% after a stellar 11% rise in 2010. On this front, slower economic expansion seemed to be a dragging factor.

"Labour productivity declined over the year by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, after increasing by 2.0% in the previous quarter. For the whole of 2011, overall labour productivity increased by 1.0%, after rising sharply by 11% in 2010. The moderation in productivity gains resulted from the slower GDP growth amid continuing strong employment creation," said MoM.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia