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Labour Market, Third Quarter 2014

Unemployment Remained Low and Rate of Re-Entry Into Employment Improved

Statistics and publications
15 December 2014

  1. The labour market remained tight in the third quarter of 2014, with the unemployment rate staying low and an improvement in long-term unemployment. The rate of re-entry into employment among residents made redundant continued to improve, amid higher layoffs from business restructuring. These are the key findings from the “Labour Market, Third Quarter 2014” report released by the Ministry of Manpower’s Research and Statistics Department.

    Main Findings
  2. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in September 2014 remained low and steady from a quarter ago at 2.0% for overall, 2.8% for residents and 2.9% for citizens.
  3. Long-term unemployment improved over the year. 10,800 residents, making up 0.5% of the resident labour force, were looking for work for 25 weeks or more in September 2014, down from 12,600 or 0.6% a year ago.
  4. Total employment grew by 33,400 in the third quarter of 2014, higher than the increase of 27,700 in the preceding quarter and largely unchanged from the 33,100 in the third quarter of 2013. This brought total employment to 3,583,200 in September 2014, which was 3.8% higher than a year ago. This year-on-year rate of growth in total employment remained unchanged from a quarter ago.
  5. More workers were laid off in the third quarter of 2014 (3,500) than in the preceding quarter (2,410) and in the third quarter of 2013 (2,710). However, the rate of re-entry into employment within six months of redundancy improved for the second consecutive quarter. Based on CPF records, 55% of the residents made redundant in the second quarter of 2014 secured employment by September 2014, up from 53% experienced by the previous cohort in June 2014.
  6. Although the seasonally adjusted number of job vacancies moderated over the quarter by 5.9% to 60,700 in September 2014, job openings continued to outnumber job seekers. The seasonally adjusted ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons rose to 142 openings per 100 job seekers in September 2014, up from 136 in June 2014.

    For More Information
  7. The report is available for download on the Ministry of Manpower’s Statistics and Publications webpage.