Singapore’s unemployment rate in the last quarter of 2008 rose to a seasonally adjusted 2.6 per cent, up from 2.2 per cent in the third quarter on rising retrenchments with slowing employment growth and a weaker economy.
According to official data from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released Friday, about 73,100 Singapore residents were jobless in December, a steep 58 per cent jump year-on-year.
For the whole of 2008, the overall unemployment rate averaged 2.3 per cent (62,900 residents), up from a year ago which was 2.1 per cent (56,700 residents). This is the first time the annual average unemployment rate has increased since 2003, when it peaked at 4.0 per cent.
Deputy secretary-general of National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), Heng Chee How, said: "We knew that the fourth quarter retrenchment was significantly higher. If you look at the overall trends, it is within expectations. The year ahead will be challenging."
The rising unemployment rate was driven by increasing retrenchment as companies cut back on manpower to cope with the global financial meltdown.
Preliminary estimates showed that some 7,000 workers were retrenched in the quarter ended December, up more than three-fold (1,966) from the same period a year ago.
For the entire year, 13,400 workers were retrenched, almost twice that of 7,675 in 2007, mainly due to layoffs in the manufacturing and services sectors.
Layoffs in the services sector jumped four-folds to 3,200 due to retrenchments in financial services and wholesale trade.
With workers released prematurely from their contracts included in the figures, redundancies totalled 16,000 for the whole of 2008.
Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said: "For the first two quarters, we expect job layoffs to continue to increase."
Alongside the rising redundancies, employment growth also dropped drastically in the fourth-quarter.
Total employment came in at 26,900 – slowing by more than half as compared to 62,500 in the same period in 2007.
Buoyed by higher figures in the earlier half of the year, total employment in 2008 only increased by 227,200 just slightly lower than that of 234,900 in 2007.
While all sectors experienced a slowdown, the manufacturing sector was the hardest hit. Employment fell by 6,200 in the quarter ended December, its first contraction since 2003.
Mr Gan said: "Some of them may have skills that have to be changed. Some of them may need to look for opportunities in other industries and some may need to go through conversion courses. Our tripartite partners are working with the various companies in the manufacturing sector to preempt retrenchments."
Bucking the trend was the construction industry, with its workforce growing strongly by 64,100 last year, up from gains of 40,400 in 2007.
- Channel New Asia
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