Human Resources, Labour Markets and Unemployment: The Impact of the SARS Epidemic on the Service Sector in Singapore

Grace O. M. Lee and Malcolm Warner

Asia Pacific Business Review, 2006, vol. 12, issue 4, 507-527

Abstract: This study examines the links between epidemics and their economic and human resources consequences in a contemporary setting, specifically in terms of their impacts on human resources, labour-markets and jobs. To exemplify the above, we looked at SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) a phenomenon we have previously investigated in the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong, vis-à-vis its impact on the Singapore economy, its human resources, labour-market and its level of employment and unemployment. We hypothesized that the greatest impact would be on human resource management (HRM) in the service-sector and on particular sub-sectors, such as the hotel industry. It concludes that the demand and supply ‘shocks’ investigated affected both the demand for and the supply of labour in the sector, with observable HRM consequences for hotel employment (as in the case of both mainland China and Hong Kong, although each being on their different respective scales, with one large and one small in population base). The Singapore outcome was, however, to prove closer to the Hong Kong experience, than to the Chinese case.

Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13602380600571443 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:apbizr:v:12:y:2006:i:4:p:507-527

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/FAPB20

DOI: 10.1080/13602380600571443

Access Statistics for this article

Asia Pacific Business Review is currently edited by Professor Chris Rowley and Malcolm Warner

More articles in Asia Pacific Business Review from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().