Singapore’s unemployment rate increased in the three months ended June as initially estimated, latest figures from the Ministry of Manpower showed Thursday. Among citizens, unemployment rose from 2.6 per cent to 3.1 per cent and rose from 2.7 per cent to 3 per cent among residents.
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This brought the total number of workers in Singapore to 3,673,400 as of June.
Reflecting slowing economic conditions, workers here faced a gloomy labour market in the second quarter of the year, with unemployment and layoffs rising.
Some 9,510 workers were laid off in the first half of 2016 – the highest since 2009, when 18,740 workers lost their jobs. Seasonally-adjusted, there were 93 job openings for every 100 job seekers at the end of the second quarter of the year.
Job vacancies, which have been falling since a year ago, went below the number of job seekers for the first time since 2012.
The number of job vacancies fell from 50,000 in March to 49,400 in June.
A total of 4,800 workers were made redundant during the second quarter, up from 4,710 the previous quarter and 3,250 in the same period a year ago.
Besides being roughly 50% more than last year’s 3250, the number of retrenched workers in the first half of 2016 now stands at 9,510.
“By education, degree holders saw a larger increase in long-term unemployment rate from 0.8% to 1.1%, near to the high of 1.2% in June 2009”, MOM said.
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At the same time, employment growth was greater.
