Employment Situation in Second Quarter 2007

Continued Record Employment Growth with Sharp Fall in Unemployment

Employment

1. Preliminary estimates show that total employment grew by a record quarterly high of 61,900 in the second quarter of 2007, as the economy continued its strong growth. This is substantially higher than the increase of 49,400 in the previous quarter and 36,400 in the same quarter a year ago.

2. Employment grew in all the major sectors, led by services which added 33,600 workers. Manufacturing posted gains of 16,600, higher than earlier quarters. Driven by the strong rebound in building activities, construction increased its workforce by 11,400, more than double the gains in the previous quarter.

Table 1: Employment

(In Thousands)

^P: Preliminary estimates

^*: Data for the three major sectors do not add up to the total as the latter includes agriculture, fishing, quarrying, utilities and sewerage & waste management

Retrenchment

3. Preliminary findings show that 1,600 workers were retrenched in the second quarter of 2007¹. This is lower than the 1,964 retrenched in the previous quarter and about half the 3,263 retrenched in the same quarter a year ago.

4. The majority of the workers were retrenched from manufacturing (1,100), reflecting the on-going restructuring in the electronics industry. Another 500 of the workers laid off came from the services industries.

Table 2: Retrenchment

^P: Preliminary estimates

^*: Data for the three major sectors may not add up to the total as the latter includes agriculture, fishing, quarrying, utilities and sewerage & waste management.

‘-‘: nil or negligible

Unemployment

5. With the robust employment gains, the seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate declined to 2.4% in June 2007 from 2.9% in March 2007 and 2.7% in Jun 2006. The resident unemployment rate also fell to 3.2% in June 2007 from 4.0% in March 2007 and 3.5% in June 2006. The last time that unemployment rate fell below this was in June 2001 (overall: 2.2% and resident: 3.1%) before the labour market felt the full impact of the 2001 economic downturn.

Table 3: Unemployment Rate

^P: Preliminary estimates

6. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the overall unemployment rate rose from 2.5% in March 2007 to 3.0% in June 2007, reflecting the increase in job seekers as this year's batch of tertiary graduates entered the labour market and students looked for work during the mid-year school vacation. Nevertheless, the rate is lower than 3.4% in June 2006. Among the resident labour force, the non-adjusted unemployment rate was 4.2%, also higher than 3.4% in March 2007 but lower than 4.5% in the same period a year ago. An estimated 79,600 residents were unemployed in June 2007. The seasonally adjusted figure was 63,000.

For More Information

7. For information on data sources and coverage, as well as definitions of key concepts used in the report, please refer to the attached Explanatory Notes. The preliminary data estimates are available online at the Ministry of Manpower's website. A more detailed breakdown of the preliminary estimates will be released in the Economic Survey of Singapore, Second Quarter 2007.

8. The above is a statistical release of the Manpower Research and Statistics Department of the Ministry.

Upcoming Publications

9. The Ministry's Manpower Research and Statistics Department will be releasing the report on the Labour Market 2nd Quarter 2007 on 14 September 2007.

¹ Data pertain to private sector establishments (each with at least 25 employees) and the public sector.