More Singaporeans employed in 2009
By channelnewsasia.com | Posted: 29 January 2010
1113 hrs
Photos
1 of 1 
Singapore street scene
Video 
More Singaporeans employed in 2009
SINGAPORE : More jobs and fewer layoffs were seen in the
later part of 2009.
A release by the Manpower Ministry indicated that for the whole of
2009, total employment increased by 38,800, as job gains in the
second half of the year more than offset the losses in the first
half.
It added that total employment is estimated to grow by 38,700 in
the fourth quarter of 2009, much higher than the gains of 14,000 in
the preceding quarter and 21,300 in the fourth quarter of
2008.
Local employment also grew by 43,000 in 2009, while foreign
employment fell. As at December 2009, just over 35 per cent of the
2.99 million persons employed in Singapore were foreigners as
compared to 64.8 per cent locals.
Leading the jobs rise was services employment, which rose by 56,100
for the whole of 2009 due to year-end festivities and the
integrated resorts.
The services sector alone saw 32,100 more workers in the fourth
quarter of 2009, significantly higher than the first three quarters
of the year and the fourth quarter of 2008.
As for construction, the sector added 4,700 workers in Q4, bringing
its total gains to 25,200 in 2009 after shedding workers for four
consecutive quarters.
On the downside were jobs in the manufacturing sector, which
although saw a rise of 1,400 in the fourth quarter, were not
sufficient to offset the earlier losses, resulting in a contraction
of 43,000 jobs.
Based on preliminary estimates, redundancy fell for the third
consecutive quarter and was the smallest yet, with a total of 1,500
workers made redundant in the fourth quarter of 2009.
However, for the whole of 2009 there were still more people being
made redundant compared to 2008, mainly due to the spike in job
cuts in the first quarter of 2009 due to the economic
downturn.
