Singapore is expected to generate a lower number of jobs this year from fixed asset investments than in the past two years, the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) said at its year-in-review briefing on Tuesday.
The city-state is expected to attract S$8 billion to S$10 billion in fixed asset investments in 2018 but the number of jobs this will generate is likely to be between 16,000 to 18,000, EDB said.
In 2017, Singapore's fixed asset investments came in at S$9.4 billion, which was within the earlier forecast of S$8 billion to S$10 billion.
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Additionally, the S$6.5 billion of total business expenditure per annum came within expectations of S$5.0 billion to S$7.0 billion.
When fully implemented, these projects are expected to create 22,500 jobs, beating its earlier forecast of between 19,000 and 21,000 jobs, EDB said.
The lower expected number of jobs in 2018 reflects the slowing growth of the local workforce, as well as the kind of jobs generated - higher-skilled, higher value jobs in higher-technology industries, EDB managing director Chng Kai Fong at the briefing.
