Labour Market Stands Steady in Q1, But Citizen Jobless Rates Up

The labour market stood firm in the first quarter of 2019 against external headwinds and sluggish economic growth in Singapore.

The key points from the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Labour Market Advance Release indicate that:

• Total employment continued its upswing, higher than the same Q1 period in 2018. Growth was mainly in the Services sectors. Bucking the trend of 11 consecutive quarters of decline, Construction employment increased slightly.
• Overall unemployment rates held steady at 2.2 per cent, while it inched up to 3.2 per cent for citizens.
• Retrenchment figures in the first three months of this year were similar to those from the last quarter of 2018. Retrenchments were down in Services, up in Manufacturing, and remain unchanged in Construction.

In response to the Manpower Ministry’s report, NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Patrick Tay commented on his Facebook page that workers and businesses alike need to be agile and adaptable in the face of economic transformation and an evolving workforce landscape.

“The Labour Movement will continue to harness our tripartite network and key stakeholders/partners to pull and pool resources to identify and address training needs and bring Worker 4.0 to fruition sector by sector, company by company. Businesses too should ride the current wave of change to transform, improve the quality of jobs, and ensure positive worker outcomes when they tap on the various funding schemes and support given,” he added.