Employment Situation, Second Quarter 2014

Unemployment remained low and layoffs declined

1. The labour market remained tight, as unemployment held steady and layoffs declined. Overall employment growth moderated from the first quarter. These are the key findings from the "Employment Situation, Second Quarter 2014" report released by the Ministry of Manpower’s Research and Statistics Department.
   
   Main Findings
   
   Unemployment
2. Preliminary estimates showed that the overall (2.0%) and citizen (3.0%) seasonally adjusted unemployment rates held steady over the quarter in June 2014, while resident unemployment rate improved slightly (from 2.9% to 2.8%).
   
   Employment growth
3. Total employment growth moderated in the second quarter of 2014 (22,000) compared to the first quarter (28,300) and a year ago (33,700).
4. This brought total employment to 3,544,200 in June 2014, which was 3.6% higher than a year ago but lower than the 4.0% in March 2014.
   
   Redundancy
5. Layoffs declined. Some 2,300 workers were made redundant in the second quarter of 2014, lower than the 3,110 workers made redundant in the preceding quarter and the 3,080 workers affected in the second quarter of 2013.
   
   For More Information
6. The "Employment Situation, Second Quarter 2014" report is available on the Ministry of Manpower’s Statistics and Publications webpage. More comprehensive labour market data will be released in the "Labour Market Report, Second Quarter 2014" on 15 September 2014.