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Employment Situation, Third Quarter 2015

Statistics and publications

Employment growth continued to moderate from last year, resident unemployment remained low but edging up

         Overview

  1. Employment continued to rise and redundancies fell for the third consecutive quarter. Resident and citizen unemployment edged up but remained low. These are the key preliminary findings from the “Employment Situation, Third Quarter 2015” report released by the Manpower Research and Statistics Department, Ministry of Manpower (MOM).  


    Main Findings

    Unemployment
  2. Preliminary estimates showed that the overall seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged over the quarter at 2.0% in September 2015. Unemployment edged up among residents (2.8% to 3.0%) and citizens (2.9% to 3.1%), amid softer economic conditions. MOM and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) stand ready to help displaced local workers to re-skill and upgrade so that they are able to take on new jobs.    

    Employment growth
  3. Overall employment grew by 16,400 in the third quarter of 2015, faster than in the last quarter (9,700), as a result of growth in services and construction. However, taken as a whole, employment growth in the first three quarters of 2015 has moderated compared to a year ago.
  4. There were 3,644,000 persons in employment in September 2015, which was 1.7% higher than a year ago, compared to 2.2% in June 2015.

    Redundancy
  5. Layoffs declined for the third consecutive quarter. Some 2,900 workers were laid off, down from 3,250 in the preceding quarter.

    For More Information
  6. The “Employment Situation, Third Quarter 2015” report is available on the Ministry of Manpower’s website at http://stats.mom.gov.sg. More comprehensive labour market data will be released in the “Labour Market Report, Third Quarter 2015” on 15 December 2015.