Singapore Employment Growth & Unemployment Rate in Q4 of 2008

January 30th, 2009 · No Comments

Employment growth in the last quarter (Q4) of 2008 was slowed down greatly by the worsening economic situation. The preliminary estimates from the Ministry of Manpower indicated that total employment grew by 26,900. This is only approximately half of the growth in Q3 2008 – 55,700 and Q4 2007 – 62,500.

Driven by strong employment growth in earlier part of the year, the total employment for the entire year of 2008 went up by 227,200 which is slightly lesser than the increase of 234,900 in 2007.

On the other hand, seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate went up to 2.6% in December 2008 from 2.2% in September 2008 and the decade low of 1.7% in 2007.