SINGAPORE'S labour market is showing encouraging signs of a turnaround, reflecting the improving economic climate.
Total employment grew by 14,000 in the third quarter, offsetting the losses in the earlier two quarters, which saw jobs growing by 6,200 in Q1 and 7,700 in Q2. The improvement in the job situation led to total employment in September recovering to around the level in December last year, said the Ministry of Manpower in a statement on Tuesday.
Service jobs grew by 12,700, significantly higher than the gains of 3,800 in the second quarter, while construction, which added 7,400 jobs, expanded at a faster pace than in the previous quarter. But manufacturing shed 6,400 workers for the fourth consecutive quarter, although the losses were substantially lower than in the first two quarters.
The seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.4 per cent in September from 3.3 per cent in June. Among the resident labour force, the jobless rate climbed to 5 per cent in Q3 or 83,800, after a decline from 4.8 per cent in March to 4.6 per cent in June, when some residents then had deferred their job search and pursued courses amid the difficult job market. The seasonally adjusted figure was 100,300, higher than 91,500 in Jun 09.
MOM added that long-term unemployment has worsened, as it takes longer for job seekers to find jobs amid cautious hiring sentiments during the downturn. The number of resident job seekers who had been looking for work for at least 25 weeks almost doubled from 9,600 from a year ago to 18,400 in September, with the share of resident job seekers rising from 17 per cent to 22 per cent.
They formed 0.9 per cent of the resident labour force compared with 0.5 per cent a year ago, but remained below the highs registered in the same period of 2003 (1.6 per cent) and 2002 (1.4 per cent).
- The Straits Times
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