Labour Day Crunch: More Singaporeans turn jobless in 1Q

Citizen unemployment rate hit 3%.

As manpower woes grip Singapore, more Singaporeans are scrambling to get a job during the first quarter of the year. Preliminary estimates showed that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose in March 2014 from December 2013 to 2.1%. Jobless rate among Singaporeans also inched higher to 3% from 2.8%.

According to the Ministry of Manpower, total employment grew by 24,900 in the first quarter of 2014, lower than the seasonally high increase of 40,600 in the fourth quarter of 2013. The increase was also lower than the 28,900 in the first quarter of 2013.

There were 3,518,700 persons in employment in March 2014. This was 3.9% higher than a year ago. This rate of increase over the year was lower than the 4.1% in December 2013.