Job vacancies up 4.3%

Job vacancies up 4.3%

JOB vacancies rose by 4.3 per cent, or 37,300 in March, for the fourth straight quarter, as labour turnover continued to rise, signalling a tightening of the labour market.

The job openings were 63 higher than the low of 22,900 a year ago, said the Ministry of Manpower which released the first quarter labour market report on Tuesday.

Coupled with the reduction in unemployment, the seasonally adjusted ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons went up to 0.90, from the low of 0.36 in March last year.

Based on CPF records, MOM said half of the residents made redundant in the fourth quarter of 2009 were re-employed by March. This re-employment rate within six months of redundancy was broadly comparable to the 52 per cent in December and 51 per cent in September 2009, after improving from the low of 43 per cent last June.

'Labour turnover continued to increase. The average monthly recruitment and resignation rates rose significantly to 2.6 per cent and 2 per cent respectively in the first quarter - from 1.9 per cent and 1.8 per cent in the same period last year. After adjusting for seasonality, both the recruitment and resignation rates rose for the third successive quarter.

Driven by the cyclical upturn, labour productivity rose over the year by 13 per cent in the first quarter, improving sharply from the growth of 2.7 per cent in the fourth quarter and 0.6 per cent in the third quarter last year.

The average nominal monthly earnings grew over the year by 3.7 per cent in the first quarter, following four consecutive quarters of decline. After adjusting for inflation (0.9 per cent), the rise in real earnings was 2.8 per cent.

On the back of strong productivity growth, the overall unit labour cost (ULC) for the whole economy fell by 8.7 per cent in the first quarter, steeper than the 6.1 per cent decline in the preceding quarter.

- The Straits Times