Singapore Q2 Jobless Rate Stable At 4-Year High

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Singapore's unemployment rate remained at a four-year high in the second quarter, official data showed Tuesday. Significantly fewer redundancies and increase in job openings after four quarters of decline indicate stabilization in the labor market.

According to the latest report from the Ministry of Manpower, the unemployment rate stabilized in the second quarter following five straight quarters of increase, as more people deferred job search. The jobless rate stood at a seasonally adjusted 3.3% in second quarter, the highest since the June quarter of 2005, when it was 3.4%. Further, the rate matched the preliminary estimate released on July 31.

Meanwhile, the resident long-term jobless rate rose to 1.3%, a four-year high for June periods, from 0.5% recorded during the second quarter of 2008.

The ministry said 5,980 workers were made redundant in the second quarter, of whom 5,170 were retrenched and 810 were released prematurely from their contracts. Redundancies decreased more than half from the peak of 12,760 seen in the first quarter of 2009, reflecting the sharp fall in redundancies in manufacturing.

Job vacancies totaled 24,500 in the second quarter, up 17% from the first quarter, but 39% below the 40,100 vacancies seen in the prior year. Along with stabilizing unemployment, the ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons rose slightly to 33 from 31 openings per 100 job seekers.

Earlier, reports in the Singapore media cited labor chief Lim Swee Say as saying that the jobless rate is unlikely to match the peak of 4.3% recorded in 2003 during the SARS crisis. The number of unemployed in Singapore will be below its peaks of past downturns, Lim said.

Lim sees a 'good chance' for layoffs to total 30,000, which was the high in 1998 during the Asian financial crisis. In the first half of this year, layoffs were 15,700.

The Singapore economy expanded 20.7% sequentially in the second quarter, reversing a 12.2% contraction in the first quarter. Year-on-year, the GDP contracted at a slower pace of 3.5% in the second quarter following a 9.5% fall in the first quarter.

Elsewhere, the Department of Statistics reported a 1.6% monthly decline in retail sales in July, while economists were looking for a 0.3% drop. July's fall reversed an increase of 2.1% seen in June. Motor vehicles and petrol service stations recorded lower sales of 6% and 3.2%, respectively.

Compared to July 2008, retail sales slipped 9.8%, larger than the expected 7.5% decrease. Excluding motor vehicles, sales were down 2.2%.

Singapore's unemployment rate remained at a four-year high in the second quarter, official data showed Tuesday. (Market News Provided by RTTNews)