Is the present increase in jobless numbers due to newcomers
entering the workforce and unable to find employment ?
Or are there not more workers being retrenched, as businesses
downsize - even as the Government spend money to
help employers to continue to keep workers, and at the same time
spending money to get workers to continue 'upgrading incontinuing
the late education' ?
Friday, October 30, 2009
‘Unemployment hits 5% among Singapore residents’
(*1)
Unemployment is creeping up as the economy recovers in
Singapore.
Jobless numbers tend to lag behind economic recovery, as Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong
said a fortnight ago, and
overall unemployment is still below 3.5 percent.
But it's clear the government scheme to keep unemployment low by
helping people defer job search and further their studies has had
only a temporary benefit.
Unemployment rose to 5 percent among the local population in
September.
Job seekers at the end of training courses are finding there are
still not enough jobs to go around.
Between 83,000 and 100,000 local residents are unemployed,
according to the Manpower Ministry which gave both seasonally
adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted figures.
The only good news is more than 15,000 new jobs were created in
the third quarter, after more than 6,000 jobs were lost in the
first quarter and well over 7,000 in the second quarter.
"Nevertheless, the gains were significantly lower than 55,700 in
the third quarter of 2008," the ministry said today.
Unemployment rate
Seasonally
adjusted Sep
08 Dec
08
Mar09 June09
Sep09
Overall
(%)
2.3
2.5 3.3
3.3
3.4
Resident
(%) 3.4
3.6 4.8 4.4
5.0
Non-seasonally
adjusted
Overall
(%)
1.9
2.4
3.0
4.1
2.9
Resident
(%) 2.8 3.5
4.4
5.9
4.1
.
The ministry
reports:
"Preliminary estimates show that the seasonally adjusted overall
unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.4% in September 2009 from 3.3%
in June 2009.
"Among the resident labour force, the rate increased to 5.0% in
September 2009.
"This followed the decline from 4.8% in March 2009 to 4.6% in
June 2009, when some residents then had deferred job search and
pursued courses amid the difficult job market."
The report continues:
"The unemployment rates were still below the peak (overall:
4.8%; resident: 6.2%) experienced in September 2003 (due to the
SARS outbreak).
"On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the overall unemployment
rate decreased from 4.1% in June 2009 to 2.9% in September 2009, as
students who looked for work during the mid-year school vacation
have returned to school and this year's tertiary graduates have
started to secure employment.
"Nevertheless, the rate was higher than 1.9% in September 2008.
Among the resident labour force, the non-adjusted unemployment rate
was 4.1% in September 2009, also lower than 5.9% in June 2009 but
higher than 2.8% in September 2008. "
And then comes the rub.
"An estimated 83,800 residents were unemployed in September
2009. The seasonally adjusted figure was 100,300."
The ministry said:
"With a recovering economy, total employment is estimated to
have grown by 15,400 in the third quarter, ending losses in the
first and second quarters of 2009 (-6,200 and -7,700 respectively).
Nevertheless, the gains were significantly lower than
55,700 in the third quarter of 2008.
"Services employment rose by 13,400 in the third quarter,
significantly higher than the gains of 7,500 in the first and 3,800
in the second quarter this year, but lower than 34,300 in the third
quarter last year.
"Construction continued to add workers (8,100), higher than the
increase in the preceding quarter (4,700) and comparable to the
first quarter of 2009 (8,300). Manufacturing shed workers for the fourth
consecutive quarter, but the decline (-6,600) was
substantially lower than in the first two quarters this year
(-22,100 in 1Q 09 and -15,900 in 2Q 09)."
Job vacancy rates in all sectors remain well below their levels
before the recession, the Monetary Authority of
Singapore (MAS) said in its Macroeconomic Review yesterday.
Overall,there were only 33 job openings per 100
jobseekers, compared to an average of 72 during the
2005-07 period.
And hirings are not likely to pick up much.
Three-quarters of the 635 firms polled intend to maintain
headcount, the MAS report pointed out.
The outlook is most pessimistic for the manufacturing sector, it
added.
Apart from the biomedical industry, which will see increased
employment arising from new investment, such as Medtronic setting
up operations in Singapore, most manufacturing companies are not
looking to hire in 2010 due to the uncertain business outlook.
