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On the back of an improving economy, overall
employment has turned in another quarter of strong gains, adding to the
increases of the past eight quarters. Unemployment rate has also edged
down slightly. |
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Employment grew by a healthy 28,500 in Q3
05. Although lower than the preceding quarter¡¯s gain of 31,700, the
increase is double the 14,100 in the same period a year ago. |
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Cumulatively, employment expanded by 78,000
in the first nine months of 2005, surpassing the 71,400 gains for the
whole of last year. |
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Amid the healthy economic expansion, the
seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate dipped slightly to 3.3% in
Sep 05 from 3.4% in Jun 051. Among the resident2
labour force, the seasonally adjusted rate was 4.4%, also lower than
4.5% in Jun 05. |
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Slightly over one in five resident jobs seekers
(21% or 14,800) in Sep 05 were unemployed for at least 25 weeks. These
long-term unemployed were mostly the less educated and mature job seekers. |
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A survey of private sector establishments
each with at least 25 employees revealed that 2,810 workers were
retrenched in Q3 05. This is substantially higher than previous
quarter¡¯s 2,116 and 1,967 in Q3 04, pulled up by a few major
retrenchment cases mainly in the electronics industry. |
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Private sector job openings numbered 20,1003
in Sep 05. This is an increase of 4.2% over the previous quarter and
6.1% higher than a year ago. However, after discounting for seasonal
influences, private sector job vacancies in Sep 05 fell slightly from
the quarter before. |
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The seasonally adjusted ratio of job
vacancies to unemployed persons decreased from 46 in Jun 05 to 42 job
openings for every 100 job seekers in Sep 051. Nevertheless,
this is an improvement from the low of 21 openings per 100 job seekers
experienced in Sep 03, following the SARS outbreak. |
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Indicating a tightening of the labour
market, nominal earnings rose year-on-year by 4.5% in Q3 05, up from the
2.5% rise in the previous quarter. Most industries saw higher earnings
growth except for construction, hotels & restaurants and business & real
estate services. |
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Employment has turned in another quarter of
healthy gains, reflecting the continuing strength in the economy. |
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Looking ahead, the employment expansion is
likely to be sustained for the rest of the year, supported by the
year-end festivities. |
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Consequently, employment creation for the
whole of this year is expected to match or even exceed the robust gains
of 108,500 experienced during the economic boom in 2000. |
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For More Information |
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The report is available online on the
Ministry of Manpower¡¯s website at
http://www.mom.gov.sg/mrsd/publication. |
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More..... (Charts) |
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1 Figures are preliminary.
2 Refers to Singaporeans and Singapore Permanent
Residents.
3 Data pertain to private sector establishments each
with at least 25 employees. |
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Source:
www.mom.gov.sg Press Release 15 Dec
2005 |
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