Unemployment rate eases in Q2

The uptrend seen since September 2016 was halted.

The unemployment rate in Singapore moderated in the second quarter of the year, with the jobless rate amongst residents going down slightly from 3.2% to 3.1%.

This is according to the preliminary figures released the Ministry of Manpower, which revealed that citizen unemployment also went down from 3.5% to 3.3%. In June 2017, an estimated 69,800 residents, including 62,800 Singapore citizens were unemployed, lower than 74,400 and 67,100 in March 2017.

The number of layoffs also fell in the quarter, with only 3,500 retrenched workers compared to the 4,000 recorded in Q1.

The decrease over the quarter was broad-based across industries. Services continued to form the bulk of retrenchments (64%) in the second quarter of 2017, followed by manufacturing (22%) and construction 13%).