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Source:
www.mom.gov.sg |
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EMPLOYMENT SITUATION IN THIRD
QUARTER 2007: |
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Unemployment rate dropped to
pre-Asian crisis level amid continued strong employment creation |
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Employment |
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Employment continued to grow strongly as the
economy maintained its rapid expansion. Preliminary estimates show that
employment grew by 57,600 in the third quarter of 2007. |
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This is substantially higher than the
increase of 43,000 in the same quarter last year but lower than the
record gains of 64,400 in the previous quarter. |
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This brings the total employment gains for
the first three quarters of 2007 to 171,500, which is close to the
176,000 for the whole of 2006. |
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Services continued to lead the employment
gains, adding 34,500 workers in the third quarter of 2007. Manufacturing
posted gains of 11,800. Driven by the growth in building activities,
construction increased its workforce by 10,800, continuing the rapid
increase of the previous quarter. |
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Retrenchment |
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Preliminary findings show that 1,700 workers
were retrenched in the third quarter of 2007. This is lower than the
1,918 retrenched in the previous quarter and the 2,472 retrenched in the
same quarter a year ago. |
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The majority of the workers retrenched were
from manufacturing (1,200). Another 500 workers were laid off from the
services industries. |
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Unemployment |
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The seasonally adjusted overall unemployment
rate fell to 1.7% in September 2007 from 2.3% in June 2007 as more of
the unemployed found jobs in the rapidly growing economy. |
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Compared to a year ago, the unemployment
rate has fallen by a full percentage point from 2.7% in September 2006.
The resident unemployment rate also fell significantly to 2.3% in
September 2007 from 3.1% in June 2007 and 3.6% in September 2006. |
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The prevailing unemployment rate is the
lowest in a decade, having improved to around pre-Asian crisis level.
The sharp improvement in unemployment rate partly reflected an easing in
the increase in resident labour supply over the past two quarters,
following rapid gains in residents entering the labour market in 2005
and 20061. |
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On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the
overall unemployment rate declined from 2.9% in June 2007 to 1.5% in
September 2007 when this year’s batch of tertiary graduates who were
looking for jobs in the earlier quarter secured employment. |
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With the tight labour market, the rate is
also lower than 2.4% in September 2006. Among the resident labour force,
the non-adjusted unemployment rate was 2.1%, also lower than 4.0% in
June 2007 and 3.2% in the same period a year ago. |
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An estimated 40,300 residents were
unemployed in June 2007. The seasonally adjusted figure was 45,400. |
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More Information |
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Information on data sources and coverage, as
well as definitions of key concepts used in the report is in the
attached Explanatory Notes. |
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The preliminary data estimates are available
online at the Ministry of Manpower’s website:
http://www.mom.gov.sg/mrsd/publication. A more detailed breakdown of
the preliminary estimates will be released in the Economic Survey of
Singapore, Third Quarter 2007. |
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The above is a statistical release of the
Manpower Research and Statistics Department of the Ministry. |
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Upcoming Publications |
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The Ministry’s Manpower Research and
Statistics Department will be releasing the report on the Labour Market,
Third Quarter 2007 on 14 December 2007. |
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1 The
resident labour supply is estimated to have increased by 14,200 during
the two quarters from Apr to Sep 07. This is lower than the average
increase of 34,900 during the same period in 2005 to 2006 but more than
the average increase of 7,600 in the earlier years of 2001 to 2004. |
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More..... |
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Source:
www.mom.gov.sg Press Release 31 Oct
2007 |
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Related Article: |
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-
Employment situation in 2nd Quarter 2007 |
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FrontPage Edition: Thu 1 November 2007
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