Employment Situation, Third Quarter 2014
Unemployment remained low and steady
31 October 2014
- Unemployment remained low and steady, with employment growth largely unchanged from the previous quarter. Layoffs increased in the third quarter of 2014, reflecting business restructuring. While some increase in layoffs is expected as businesses restructure, unemployment has remained low as the economy continues to create jobs. These are the key preliminary findings from the “Employment Situation, Third Quarter 2014” report released by the Ministry of Manpower’s Research and Statistics Department.
Main Findings
Unemployment
- Preliminary estimates showed that the overall seasonally adjusted unemployment rates held steady over the quarter in September 2014 (from 2.0% to 1.9%), while the rates for residents (2.8%) and citizens (2.9%) remained low.
Employment growth
- Overall employment growth in the third quarter of 2014 (27,100) was largely unchanged from the previous quarter (27,700), though it was lower than a year ago (33,100).
- This brought total employment to 3,577,000 in September 2014, which was 3.6% higher than a year ago but lower than the 3.8% in June 2014.
Redundancy
- Redundancy rose in the third quarter of 2014, reflecting business restructuring. Some 3,400 workers were made redundant in the third quarter of 2014. This was higher than the 2,410 workers affected in the preceding quarter and 2,710 in the third quarter of 2013. Services sector accounted for slightly more than half of the layoffs in third quarter, 2014.
For More Information
- The “Employment Situation, Third 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, Third Quarter 2014” on 15 December 2014.