Hand in those CVs: Job vacancies hit eight-year high

But unemployment is also on the rise.

The Ministry of Manpower released figures yesterday, indicating around 62,500 available positions, the biggest since 2006, but unemployment surprisingly danced to the rhythm and increased from 1.8% last year to 2% this year.

Similar small increases in unemployment apply for both residents and citizens, while the rising number of job-seekers may be accounted to more less-educated citizens entering the workforce, given more vacancies and higher pays.

Here’s more from the report:

Total employment grew by 28,300 in the first quarter of 2014, lower than the seasonal high increase of 40,600 in the last quarter of 2013 but broadly comparable to the 28,900 in the first quarter of 2013. This brought total employment to 3,552,200 in March 2014, which was 4.0% higher than a year ago. This year-on-year rate of growth in total employment edged down from 4.1% a quarter ago.

Job openings continued to increase. The seasonally adjusted job vacancies rose for the third consecutive quarter, though the rate of increase over the quarter moderated to 3.0% in March 2014 from 9.2% in December 2013 and 5.8% in September 2013. Job openings continued to outnumber job seekers, though the ratio has eased. The seasonally adjusted ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons declined from 1.43 in December 2013 to 1.33 in March 2014.