Will Singapore employment see brighter days soon?

Employment growth is feared to be at its slowest since 2003.

As joblessness and redundancies have risen for the first half of the year, Singapore's employment outlook remains dim.

According to a report by DBS Research, the 3% rate of unemployment recorded among residents in the second quarter was an accurate reflection of the underlying conditions in the labour market than the headline overall unemployment rate, which currently still stands at 2.1%.

"The latter does not include foreign workers who have left the country upon the termination of their employment and hence, underrepresents the true unemployment situation," the report stated.

The report also took notice of the decline to 0.93 of the job vacancies and unemployed ratio. This has been the lowest decline since March 2010, which saw the ratio dip to 0.87.

"Plainly, the labour market will continue to soften as the growth momentum is expected to weaken further. With employment growth of just about 11,600 in the first half of 2016, the full-year job growth figure will certainly be lower than an already paltry showing of 32,400 last year," DBS stressed.

More so, the report feared that employment growth may even fall short of the already bearish forecast of about 29,000 for the year. Should this happen, employment growth may be at its lowest pace since 2003.