'Unemployment is now at its lowest level in over 12 months,' said Lynn Ng, regional director of recruitment firm Adecco. 'Many economists would view 2.2 per cent as full employment.' She predicted job-hopping will rise as the job market hots up.
The dip in the unemployment rate - though it is a tad higher than the 2.1 per cent projected by private-sector economists - came as the economy posted a remarkable 13 per cent year-on-year growth in Q1. The resident unemployment rate (for Singaporeans and permanent residents) eased to 3.2 per cent in March from a revised 3.3 per cent last December.
'The labour market shows clear signs of recovery in tandem with the strong economic recovery chalked up in Q1 2010,' said Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong in a statement. 'We can expect job creation to continue for the rest of this year.'
New jobs created rose for a third straight quarter - by 34,000 - in the first three months of this year. And redundancies continued to fall - to 2,100.
Although employment growth in Q1 was smaller than the 37,500 jobs posted in Q4 2009, Ms Ng said it is still a sign that 'Singapore's employment market continues to rebound from the lows of the first half of last year - and shows a sustained recovery'. 'With this sustained employment growth, we would expect to see more companies convert temporary and contract positions to full-time roles.'
Redundancies (retrenchments and early release of contract workers) dropped in Q1 from 2,220 in Q4 2009. The number was 12,760 in Q1 2009.
But the latest drop in overall redundancies masked higher figures for the manufacturing and construction sectors. Manufacturing redundancies jumped to 1,000 in Q1, from 860 in Q4 2009. And redundancies in construction edged up to 300, from 250. Still, manufacturing jobs rose for a straight second quarter (see table), while the construction sector showed a dip in employment.
Source: Business Times, 1 May 2010
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