SINGAPORE, Jan 8 — The unemployment rate fell across the board in November last year from the previous month. This is the first time since Covid-19 struck Singapore that joblessness has declined, based on new data released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) today.

The unemployment rate for citizens and permanent residents (PRs) came in at 4.6 per cent, declining from 4.8 per cent in October last year, when joblessness peaked.

For citizens alone, the unemployment rate dipped from 4.9 per cent in October to 4.7 per cent in November. The overall unemployment rate, which covers citizens, PRs and foreigners living in households here, dropped from 3.6 per cent in October to 3.3 per cent in November.

In its labour market report for the third quarter of last year, MOM noted that employment among citizens and permanent residents had recovered to near-pre-pandemic levels, but more residents were jobless over an extended period. 

There were 22,000 people in September last year who had been jobless for at least 25 weeks, up from 18,600 three months before. This brought the long-term unemployment rate for residents up to 0.9 per cent in September last year, up from 0.8 per cent in June that year, a trend that MOM said "bears close watching”. — TODAY