SINGAPORE'S job market stabilised in the second quarter, with fewer redundancies and more job openings as the economy emerges from its worst recession.
The overall unemployment rate stood at a seasonally adjusted 3.3 per cent in June, unchanged from the first quarter, according to the latest labour market report released by the Ministry of Manpower on Tuesday.
Among the resident labour force, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.6 per cent in June, from 4.8 per cent in March as more people deferred job search and pursued courses.
Some 116,300 residents were jobless in June. The seasonally adjusted figure was 91,500, slightly lower than the 95,800 in the previous quarter.
After declining by 6,200 in Q1, total employment fell for the second consecutive quarter in Q2 by 7,700, said the report.
Some 5,980 workers were made redundant in Q2, of whom 5,170 were retrenched and 810 were released prematurely from their contracts.
Redundancies fell by more than half from the peak of 12,760 in the first three months.
The improvement largely reflected the sharp fall in redundancies in manufacturing from 9,250 in Q1 to 2,900 in Q2.
Services and construction also laid-off fewer workers in Q2, with 2,850 and 230 redundancies respectively, than in the previous quarter (3,170 and 330 respectively).
As manufacturing accounted for over 90 per cent of the decrease, the proportion of workers made redundant from manufacturing shrank from 72 per cent to 48 per cent, while the share coming from services rose from 25 per cent to 48 per cent, and construction from 2.6 per cent to 3.9 per cent.
Job vacancies rose by 17 per cent over the quarter to 24,500 in June, but this was still 39 per cent below the 40,100 a year ago.
After adjusting for seasonality, total job vacancies increased by 8 per cent in June from three months ago, after four quarters of decline. Coupled with stabilising unemployment, the ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons increased slightly over the quarter from a seasonally adjusted 31 to 33 openings per 100 job seekers in June. This was the first increase after five straight quarters of decline, said MOM.
Summing up the second quarter job situation, MOM said: 'The deterioration in the labour market appeared to have stabilised, as significantly fewer workers were made redundant and job openings rose after four quarters of decline.'
'The unemployment rate held steady following five straight quarters of increase, as more people deferred job search and pursued courses. Meanwhile, cost pressures have eased as earnings continued to decline and productivity fell less sharply than before.'
'On the other hand , a record low proportion of workers retrenched secured re-employment and long-term unemployment has worsened, indicating that the labour market was still weak.'
- The Straits Times
No comments:
Post a Comment