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| Singapore's labour market stages strong Q4 recovery |
| 29 Jan 2010 |
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Singapore’s labour market recovered strongly in the fourth quarter last year.
Initial estimates released by the Ministry of Manpower or MOM shows that 38 thousand 700 jobs were created in the three months to December.
That helped the seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate to drop sharply to 2.1 percent, down from the 3.4 percent in the previous quarter.
Singapore’s economy, which rebounded from a recession in the second half last year, finally had good news in the fourth quarter.
Usually labour numbers are a lagging indicator on the health of the economy, as cautious businesses wait a while before expanding hirings again.
But workers here, especially those in the services sector, did not have to wait too long to ride on the wave of gross domestic product expansion.
Some 32 thousand jobs were created in the sector, aided by increased employment for the usual year-end festivities as well as the opening of several new malls in Orchard and the integrated resorts.
Even the manufacturing sector, which saw 4 straight quarters of losses, managed to squeeze into positive territory with a net gain of 1,400 jobs.
Barclays' Senior Regional Economist Leong Wai Ho thinks manufacturing will help to power growth in the labour market this year.
"The engines that are driving this employment growth will rebalance away from services and generally more into manufacturing because in 2010 we’re expecting more manufacturing capacity to open up and that should reverse the decline in manufacturing growth last year. We have a very strong competitive edge in the higher-value manufacturing spectrum and this is the area we are pushing into."
Despite the economic contraction, local employment grew by 43 thousand last year.
Foreign employment, meanwhile, fell by 4,200 in 2009, a stark contrast to the record increase of close to 157 thousand in the previous year.
NTUC Deputy Secretary General Halimah Yacob says the fall signals the government’s intention to cut down its reliance on the foreign workforce.
"There are companies that decided to give priority to local workers and that move is also very much helped by the Jobs Credit Scheme. Also, I think it’s partly because the jobs pool has shrunk. Since the jobs pool has shrunk, the demand for all categories of workers, including foreign workers declined. The other reason is also because I think the impact of the government taking initiative to moderate the flow of foreign workers is obviously having its impact."
38 thousand 700 jobs were created in the fourth quarter last year, making up almost all the 38 thousand 800 job gains made for the whole of 2009. |