11,020 were laid off in Singapore in the whole of 2018: MOM

Singapore's Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) latest Labour Market Advance Release 2018 report has revealed a total of 11,020 lay offs took place in the whole of 2018.

According to the report, this was significantly lower than the previous year, which was at 14,720 - a year-on-year decline of 3,680.

In individual sectors, services formed 65% of the numbers, followed by manufacturing making up 24% and construction making up 11%.

Unemployment in Singapore was at 2.2% in Q4 2018

a slight growth in overall unemployment from Q3 2018 to Q4 2018.

The numbers rose from 2.1% in September 2018, to 2.2% recorded in December 2018. For residents alone, the rate of unemployment rose from 2.9% to 3.0% after holding steady in the previous quarter, a similar case for citizens whereby it rose from 3.0% to 3.1%.

This brought the total estimated number of unemployed residents up to 69,800 (including 60,600 citizens) - higher than the 66,000 (and 58,200) seen in September that year.

The report showed, however, that despite this slight increase, the annual average unemployment rates for the entire 2018 were lower than that in 2017, thus reflecting a general downtrend in unemployment rates since March 2017.

An additional 15,600 employees joined the labour force

On the employment front, the total number of employed people rose by 15,600 in Q4 2018. This number, not accounting for Foreign Domestic Workers (FDW), was a slightly lower increase than Q3 2018, which saw an additional employment of 16,700. However, it was 4,900 higher year-on-year.

The following was also observed in employment in selected sectors:

• Services sector: Employment grew by 17,500 in Q4, up from a growth of 13,800 in Q3.
• Construction sector: Amid weakness in this sector, employment remained unchanged.
• Manufacturing sector: Employment in this sector dropped by 2,000 despite a previous increase of 3,500 in Q3 2018.

Taking into account the entire 2018, total employment excluding FDW increased by 39,300, driven by the services sector which saw 48,300 more employees. Further, local employment rose by about 28,400 that year, more than double the number of foreign employees (10,900).

Thus, in total, Singapore saw a total number of 3,462,000 employed people in December 2018, comprising 2,329,900 locals and 1,132,200 foreigners.

Photo / 123RF