Jobstreet.com: Singaporeans not ready for retirement

The following article is published with permission from Jobstreet.com, a leading online job site presently covering the employment markets in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam. The survey done by Jobstreet.com revealed that Singaporeans are financially not ready for retirement. I am not surprised by the results of the survey at all because in general, I find that Singaporeans tend to procrastinate or avoid planning for their retirement. Many Singaporeans don’t appreciate the importance of building wealth early on in their career journey and the worst thing is that many of them are lazy or cannot even be bothered to study the art of making money. Singaporeans have to wake up to their idea that if they chose to work for others, which is nothing inherently wrong, then they must learn how to invest to ensure that they can enjoy their retirement.

With the increase in life expectancy in Singapore, senior workers are considering to postpone their retirement beyond the country’s statutory minimum retirement age of 62 years old. JobStreet.com recently conducted a survey to find out if employers in Singapore are willing to accommodate them. Responses were gathered from 150 employers and 1,400 Singaporean workers aged 40 years and above . The survey was conducted in March.

Key Findings:

Singaporeans want to keep working even after reaching retirement age

58% of workers indicated they plan to continue working after they reached retirement. 12% said they preferred to continue working with their current employers and would ask for an employment extension.

87% of employers responded that they are open to postponing the retirement of existing workers. 69% of the employers even mentioned that they were willing to offer the same remuneration and benefits upon re-employment of the retired staff.

Employability for seniors

88% of employers said that they are willing to consider hiring seniors aged 50 years and above.

Most workers surveyed believe that they can still continue contributing meaningfully beyond retirement, with only 9% intending to completely stop working.

Ability to manage finances is key
37% of workers surveyed said being able to manage their finances was the main reason why they would want to continue working beyond their retirement age. 32% said it was to maintain a healthy body and mind.
75% said they preferred part time or project based employment to achieve a better work-life balance after retirement.

Willing to work in positions they are overqualified for

88% said that they were willing to apply for jobs that they are overqualified for, indicating that career advancement was not a priority for these seniors.
To complement this, 87% of employers said that they would consider hiring senior candidates who were over qualified for the positions. 50% of employers also said that they were willing to offer part-time and contract based re-employment for retirees.

Savings required for Singaporeans to retire

55% said they would require at least $500,000 to retire.