SINGAPORE employers added 34,000 workers to their payrolls in the first three months as companies step up hiring in tandem with the robust economic recovery.
This is the third quarterly increase after two quarters of decline in the first half of last year, said the Ministry of Manpower, which released the latest jobs update on Friday morning.
Q1's employment growth is still slightly lower than the 37,500 in the last quarter of 2009, which hit a seasonal high due to the year-end festivities. But the labour market has made a strong rebound from the same quarter a year ago when 6,200 jobs were axed due to the global economic downturn.
With the strong job gains, the seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate dipped to 2.2 per cent in March - the lowest level since the first quarter of 2008 when the jobless rate was at 1.9 per cent, and 2.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.
Among the resident labour force, the unemployment rate fell to 3.2 per cent from a revised 3.3 per cent last December and 4.8 per cent in the third quarter. The bulk of the Q1 employment gains continued to come from services which added 31,200 jobs, while manufacturing hired 3,400 more workers - for the second straight quarter after shedding workers for four consecutive quarters.
Construction hiring slowed down slightly, adding 800 workers, after 20 successive quarters of employment gains from Q1 of 2005. MOM said 1,600 workers were retrenched and 500 contracts were terminated prematurely during the first quarter, resulting in 2,100 workers made redundant from January to March.
- The Straits Times
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