24,900 new jobs in Q2

OVERALL employment in Singapore rose for the fourth straight quarter from April to June while redundancies remained at a pre-recessionary low level, helping to stabilise the jobless rate at 2.2 per cent.

Some 24,900 jobs were added in the second quarter, bringing the total gains in the first half year to 61,400, against a loss of 13,800 jobs a year ago.

With the growing manpower demand, job openings have outnumbered job seekers for the first time in this economic recovery, said the Ministry of Manpower in its Q2 labour market report on Wednesday.

The services sector added 25,400 workers in the second quarter, fewer than the 33,400 jobs added in the earlier quarter. Construction took in 2,000 more workers, compared to a drop of 400 in the first quarter. However, manufacturing jobs fell by 2,300, after rising by 3,100 in the first quarter.

'Unemployment has stabilised, after declining sharply at the end of 2009,' said MOM, noting that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rates were unchanged over the quarter at 2.2 per cent (overall) and 3.2 per cent for residents in June, reflecting significant improvements from the 3.2 per cent and 4.5 per cent respectively from a year ago.

There were 84,400 jobless residents in June. Seasonally adjusted, the number was 65,500, comparable to 66,200 in March, but is down 27 per cent from 90,300 a year ago.

MOM added that long-term unemployment also improved significantly. The number of residents who had been looking for work for at least 25 weeks fell substantially from 25,800 or 1.3 per cent of the resident labour force in June last year to 16,500 or 0.8 this June. Their share among the pool of job seekers also improved from 22 per cent to 20 per cent over the year.

Redundancies remained at around pre-recessionary quarterly levels, with 2,280 workers made redundant in the second quarter. This is slightly lower than the 2,400 in the earlier quarter. Redundancies in manufacturing rose over the quarter from 1,120 to 1,220, while that in construction and services fell from 340 to 150 and 940 to 920 respectively.

- The Straits Times