Guess who's still hiring in Singapore?

The services sector continues its hiring spree with another hundred-thousand new jobs in 2011 but manufacturing is in stasis mode.

Job gains in the services sector reached a robust 96,100, making up the bulk of the country's 122,600 additonal employment for the year, based on new 2011 labor market data from the Ministry of Manpower (MoM).

Construction also expanded its ranks by 22,000 with the recent boom in public projects, but the high-value sector of manufacturing was at a virtual hiring freeze with only 3,400 job gains.

All this led to a record unemployment of 2% for the whole of Singapore, although foreigners seem to faring better than residents and Singapore citizens, whose unemployment rates were below average at 2.9% and 3.0%, respectively.

"Supported by hiring for the festive season, employment growth strengthened in the fourth quarter of 2011 (37,600) from the preceding quarter (31,900) and the fourth quarter of 2010 (33,900). For the whole year, total employment increased by 122,600 (or 3.9%) in 2011, slightly higher than the gains of 115,900 (or 3.9%) in 2010," said MoM.

"A large majority of the employment gains continued to come from services in 2011 (96,100), though this was lower than in 2010 (112,600). Boosted by public projects, construction employment rose by 22,000, much higher than the gains of 3,400 in 2010. Manufacturing employment grew by only 3,400, as gains totalling 4,800 in the first three quarters offset the losses of 1,400 in the fourth quarter," it said.

"With slower resident population growth and most economically active residents already employed, local employment grew by 37,900 or 1.9% in 2011, lower than the 56,200 or 2.9% increase in 2010. In response to strong manpower demand, foreign employment increased by 84,800 or 7.6% in 2011, following the gains of 59,700 or 5.7% in 2010. Excluding foreign domestic workers (FDWs), foreign employment rose by 79,800 or 8.8%, after increasing by 54,400 or 6.3% in 2010," it added.

"As at December 2011, there were 1,197,900 foreigners employed in Singapore. Excluding FDWs, the foreigners’ share of employment was 32.8% in December 2011, up from 31.4% a year ago.
For the whole of 2011, the unemployment rate averaged 2.0% overall, 2.9% for residents and 3.0% for Singapore citizens. These rates were the lowest recorded in 14 years. On average, 60,600 residents including 52,900 Singapore citizens were unemployed in 2011. The corresponding figures in 2010 were 64,800 and 57,700," MoM said.

"Long-term unemployment continued to improve. 11,500 unemployed residents making up 0.5% of the resident labour force in December 2011 had been looking for work for at least 25 weeks, down from 12,300 or 0.6% a year ago. For the whole of 2011, the resident long-term unemployment rate and number averaged 0.6% and 12,200, down from 0.7% and 13,700 in 2010," it said further.