Singapore job losses fly high

Recession has so far had a bone-breaking effect on global economy and global job markets and Singapore is no exception. It is worth highlighting the statistical facts which have emerged out of the latest report of Ministry of Manpower , Singapore throwing light on the job market situation in Singapore.

According to the latest report of Ministry of Manpower, the unemployment rate in Singapore settled at 3.2 percent in March 2009 compared to 2.5 percent in December 2008. The resident unemployment rate touched 4.8 percent in March, 2009 against 3.6percent in December, 2008.

What is more alarming is that the number of retrenched workers increased from 7500 in fourth quarter last year to10,800 in first quarter this year. Moreover the number of redundancies rose from 9400 in fourth quarter to 12,600 which has been the highest in the decade. It is interesting to note that although job retrenchment and redundancies have increased, but the early release of contract workers have declined.

According to the ministry, decreasing external demand has severely affected the manufacturing sector where employment declined by 19,900, deeper than the 7,000 loss in the earlier quarter. The construction employment grew by 8,500 in the first quarter of 2009 backed by a strong series of building projects, but lower than the profits in the earlier quarters. Services added 10,300 workers which was substantially lower than before.

Year	1st Qtr	2nd Qtr	3rd Qtr	4th Qtr	Number of Redundancies Per 1,000 Paid Workers
1998	8,830	7,750	7,620	8,600	32.7
1999	3,700	3,620	3,570	4,640	16.1
2000	6,210	1,880	1,810	2,050	11.9
2001	3,520	6,280	8,880	8,890	26.3
2002	5,110	4,580	4,370	6,070	19.2
2003	4,610	5,510	4,310	2,840	16.7
2004	3,010	2,120	2,090	3,430	10.1
2005	2,280	2,250	3,240	3,380	10
2006	3,690	3,430	2,570	3,390	9.8
2007	2,100	2,030	2,350	2,110	6
2008	2,420	1,880	3,180	9,410	10.6
2009	12,600	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.

*Source of data: Ministry of Manpower, Singapore