Chart of the Day: Check out Singapore's declining unemployment rate in the last 10 years

Average rate was 3% in 2012.

According to Nomura, the policy of reducing reliance on foreign labor was clearly articulated in this year’s February budget and with further refinements announced subsequently. 

The government continues to push for Singapore companies to restructure to raise productivity and has reiterated its willingness to support companies financially as they restructure. 

At this stage the impact from the restructuring appears to be well contained. With the tight labor market, the average resident unemployment rate in 2012 was a low 2.8% while the average unemployment rate for Singaporeans in 2012 was 3.0%.

Here's more from Nomura:

As at the end of 1Q2013, it was 2.9%. Layoffs picked in 2012 to 11,010, compared to 9,990 in 2011, and warrants monitoring, especially in the light of weak external demand and the on-going labor market restructuring.

On a quarterly basis, the rate of layoffs has picked up from 2,600 in 1Q2012 to 3,350 in 4Q2012. This number improved slightly in 1Q2013 with layoffs of 2,000.

It is interesting to note that 66.5% of resident workers laid off in 2012 were from the Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians occupational group.

The positive news is that many of those who were laid off have been able to find work in short time. 

However it is worth pointing out that the Ministry of Manpower has highlighted that there has been a fall in job openings over the past 12 months, especially in the PMET (-14%), clerical, services and sales workers (-18%) and production, transport and laborers (-18%).

Declines were also observed in the wholesale trade and manufacturing segments, which contracted 33% and 23% respectively.

The fall in job opening saw the seasonally adjusted ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons fall to 110 job openings for every 100 job seekers in December 2012, vs 125 in September 2012.