All major sectors registered employment growth in the fourth quarter of 2006.

The bulk of the gains continued to come from services (32,300), supported by seasonal hirings for year-end festivities. Manufacturing and construction also continued to post increases in employment of 10,200 and 5,900 respectively.

Table 1.1: Employment (Quarterly)                                                                                                                                                                           (In Thousands)

P: Preliminary estimates
*: Total includes agriculture, fishing, quarrying, utilities and sewerage & waste management
Data may not add up due to rounding 

Total employment creation for the whole of 2006 hit an all-time high of 173,300, surpassing the previous year's gains of 113,300. This brought the total number employed to 2,493,200 as at December 2006.

Local employment grew by a new record high of 88,200 in 2006¹, up from gains of 63,500 in 2005. This exceeds the normal increase in local labour supply of around 33,000 a year, boosted by more people entering the labour force, amid increased job opportunities². Against a larger base of jobs created, locals took up slightly over half (51%) of the total employment created in 2006.

Foreign employment rose by 85,100 in 2006, enabling the economy to grow beyond the limits of Singapore's indigenous workforce.  In contrast, during the difficult years of 2001 to 2003, foreigners bore the brunt of job losses (Table 1.2). As at December 2006, there were 756,300 foreigners, forming 30% of the total employment pool. Although slightly higher than 29% a year ago, the foreign share is lower than 31% in December 2000. 

Table 1.2: Employment (Annual)(In Thousands)

 P:  Preliminary estimatesLocals also known as residents refer to Singapore citizens and permanent residents
Data may not add up due to rounding 

Retrenchment

Preliminary findings from a survey of private sector establishments with at least 25 employees show that 3,000 workers were retrenched in the fourth quarter of 2006. This is higher than the 2,435 retrenched in the previous quarter, but lower than 3,200 in the same quarter a year ago.

The majority of the workers were retrenched from the manufacturing sector (2,400), reflecting the on-going restructuring in the electronics industry. Another 600 of the workers laid off came from the services industries.Table 2.1: Retrenchment (Quarterly)

P:  Preliminary estimates
*: Total includes agriculture, fishing, quarrying, utilities and sewerage & waste management.
‘-‘: nil or negligible

Total retrenchment for the whole of 2006 was 12,200. Although this is higher than 10,294 in 2005, it is only about half the number retrenched in 2001 (25,838). Manufacturing formed the bulk of retrenchments (8,800), followed by services (3,000) and construction (400) in 2006.

Table 2.2: Retrenchment (Annual)

P:  Preliminary estimates
*: Total includes agriculture, fishing, quarrying, utilities and sewerage & waste management.

Unemployment

The seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate was 2.6% in December 2006, a slight decline from 2.7% in September 2006. Despite the recent increase in resident labour supply³, the resident unemployment rate held steady at 3.6% (seasonally adjusted) since June 2006.An estimated 69,600 residents were unemployed in December 2006. 

The seasonally adjusted figure was 68,600.

Table 3.1: Unemployment Rate (Quarterly)

P:  Preliminary estimates For the whole year of 2006, overall unemployment rate averaged 2.7%, which is lower than 3.1% in 2005 and the high of 4.0% experienced during the economic slowdown in 2003. Similarly, the resident unemployment rate improved to 3.6% in 2006, from 4.1% in 2005 and 5.2% in 2003. On average, 67,500 residents were unemployed in 2006, down from 74,900 in 2005 and the high of 91,200 in 2003. 

Table 3.2: Unemployment Rate (Annual)

 P:  Preliminary estimatesAnnual figures are the simple averages of the unemployment figures obtained at quarterly intervals.

 For More Information 

Information on data sources and coverage, as well as definitions of key concepts used in the report is in the attached Explanatory Notes. The preliminary data estimates are available online at the Ministry of Manpower's website.  A more detailed breakdown of the preliminary estimates will be released in the Economic Survey of Singapore, 2006.

The above is a statistical release of the Manpower Research and Statistics Department of the Ministry.