Singapore Labour Market, Second Quarter 2008

Employment growth remains strong with retrenchment down but unemployment continues to rise. In summary, employment has continued to expand strongly, supported by record gains in construction. Retrenchment has also eased following increases in the preceding two quarters. However, productivity has contracted for the third consecutive quarter, as growth in employment outpaced output growth. Unemployment also rose for the second consecutive quarter amid the economic uncertainties.

Excerpts from MOM's Press Release:

Total employment growth remained strong in the second quarter (71,400) declining slightly from Q1 08 (73,200), but it is still higher than a year ago (64,400). This brought employment growth in the first half of 2008 to a record 144,600, compared with 113,800 in the same period last year.

Amid the economic uncertainties, the unemployment rate rose for the second consecutive quarter, after improving to pre-Asian crisis levels in the second half of 2007. The overall unemployment rate rose from a seasonally adjusted 1.7% in Dec 07 to 2.0% in Mar 08 and further to 2.3%p in Jun 08. An estimated 77,800p residents were unemployed in Jun 08.

After rising for two consecutive quarters, the number of retrenched workers1 fell to 1,798 in Q2 08 from 2,274 in Q1 08.

There were 40,100 job vacancies in Jun 08, after increasing 5.0% over the quarter and 7.1% over the year. These unfilled posts represented 2.5% of manpower demand, unchanged from the preceding two quarters, but was slightly lower than 2.6% in Jun 07. With the rise in job seekers, the seasonally adjusted ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons fell from 115 job openings for every 100 job seekers in Mar 08 to 87P per 100 in Jun 08, same as a year ago.

Nominal earnings rose over the year by 3.1% in Q2 08, moderating from the growth of 11% in the previous quarter and 8.5% in Q2 07.

Labour productivity declined further in Q2 08 (-7.5%), following two consecutive quarters of contraction in Q1 08 (-2.7%) and Q4 07 (-3.7%). Except for wholesale & retail trade (0.5%), labour productivity growth was negative across all industries as the strong pace of employment creation in these sectors outweighed output growth.

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