Singapore Job Firings Slow, Vacancies Rise as Economy Improves
Singapore employers fired fewer workers last quarter than in the previous three months and increased payrolls and job openings as the economy exited its worst recession since independence in 1965.
Total employment rose by 14,000 in the three months ended September, compared with a loss of 7,700 jobs the previous quarter, according to revised figures released by the Ministry of Manpower today. That is lower than the government’s October estimate of 15,400. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.4 percent as companies cut 2,470 jobs.
Singapore in October extended a wage subsidy program for employers set to expire this year to avoid an increase in job losses that may derail the city-state’s economic recovery. The government last month said it doesn’t expect a return to recessionary conditions even as the outlook for the second half of 2010 remains uncertain.
“The labor market has shown signs of a turnaround,” the government said today. “Employment has recovered from the losses experienced during the downturn Same day payday loans. Significantly fewer workers were made redundant and job vacancies increased for the second straight quarter.”
There were 34,900 job vacancies last quarter, a seasonally adjusted increase of 46 percent from the prior three months, according to today’s report.
Average wages before adjusting for inflation fell 3 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the ministry said, after declining 2.2 percent in the previous three months.
The jobless rate is the highest in four years. Singapore’s unemployment rate may fall to 3 percent at the end of 2010, from 3.4 percent this year, a central bank survey of economists published this month showed.
The manufacturing industry lost 6,400 jobs in the three months ended September, the fourth straight quarter of declines. Service industries added 12,700 positions, while construction companies added 7,400 new workers, the report showed.
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