Unemployment rate inches up in Q1 but remains low: Manpower ministry

SINGAPORE — The unemployment rate in Singapore remains low, despite rising slightly in the first quarter of the year, the latest Ministry of Manpower (MOM) figures show.

The key findings from MOM’s “Labour Market, First Quarter 2014” report, released today (June 13), were that the seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate was 2 per cent in March this year, up from 1.8 per cent in December 2013.

Similar increases were observed for residents from 2.7 per cent to 2.9 per cent and citizens from 2.8 per cent to 3 per cent. This could reflect increased job search activity as more residents, especially the less educated, were encouraged to enter the labour force, given more job openings and an increase in wages, with the tightening of foreign manpower controls, the ministry said.

The long-term unemployment rate stayed low at 0.6 per cent this March. There were 12,900 residents who had been looking for work for at least 25 weeks in March this year, down from 13,700 in March last year.

Total employment grew by 28,300 in the first quarter, lower than the seasonally high increase of 40,600 in the last quarter of 2013 but broadly comparable to the 28,900 in the first quarter of 2013. This brought total employment to 3,552,200 this March, which was 4 per cent higher than a year ago, the report said.

Seasonally adjusted job vacancies rose for the third consecutive quarter, though the rate of increase over the quarter moderated to 3 per cent this March from 9.2 per cent last December and 5.8 per cent last September.

The ministry’s report also highlighted that job openings continued to outnumber job seekers, though the ratio has eased. The seasonally adjusted ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons declined from 1.43 last December to 1.33 this March.

A total of 3,110 workers were made redundant in the first quarter, a decline from the 3,660 in the preceding quarter, though this was higher than the 2,120 workers retrenched in the first quarter of last year. CHANNEL NEWSASIA