The latest Government's annual Population Brief report showed that Singapore's total population as of June fell for the second straight year, down to 5.45 million from 5.69 million in 2020.

Although the resident population also fell slightly, this year's decline is majorly triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent travel restrictions. The non-resident population decreased by 10.7 percent to 1.47 million as of June. 

Further, Singapore's citizen population also decreased by 0.7 percent to 3.5 million, while the permanent resident (PR) population fell by 6.2 percent to 0.49 million. 

As per the report, travel restrictions during the pandemic played a major part in the decline. More citizens and PRs stayed overseas continuously for 12 months or more and were not counted as part of Singapore's resident population. The travel restrictions had a larger impact and resulted in an overall decrease in the number of overseas Singapore citizens to 179,500 - the lowest since 2011. Especially, as the country hosted less number of frequent travellers - citizens who usually reside in Singapore but travel abroad for the greater part of the year. 

"Immigration helps to moderate the impact of ageing and low birth rates in our citizen population, and keeps it from shrinking over the longer term. The pace of immigration will continue to be kept measured and stable," said the report, published by the National Population and Talent Division under the Prime Minister's Office.

As the fear of COVID-19 and its variants looms over the world, travel restrictions continue to persist and so does the labour shortage. The government and the companies in Singapore have to focus on making structural changes and investing in skill-building to tackle the talent shortage.