SINGAPORE, June 13 ― The overall seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Singapore rose from 1.8 per cent in December 2013 to 2.0 per cent in March 2014, says the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

In its “Labour Market, First Quarter 2014” report released by the MOM’s Research and Statistics Department, it said similar increases were observed for residents from 2.7 per cent to 2.9 per cent and citizens from 2.8 per cent to 3.0 per cent.

It said this could reflect increased job search activity as more residents, especially the less educated, were encouraged to enter the labour force, given more job openings and an increase in wages, with the tightening of foreign manpower controls.

Overall, the report said unemployment rates were still low and comparable to earlier quarters.

The long-term unemployment rate stayed low at 0.6 per cent in March 2014.

There were 12,900 residents who had been looking for work for at least 25 weeks in March 2014, down from 13,700 in March 2013.      

Total employment grew by 28,300 in the first quarter of 2014, lower than the seasonally high increase of 40,600 in the last quarter of 2013 but broadly comparable to the 28,900 in the first quarter of 2013.

This brought total employment to 3,552,200 in March 2014, which was 4.0 per cent higher than a year ago.

This year-on-year rate of growth in total employment is similar to the 4.1 per cent growth a quarter ago.

According to the report, fewer workers were made redundant in the first quarter of 2014 (3,110) than in the preceding quarter (3,660), though this was higher than in the first quarter of 2013 (2,120).

It said job openings continued to increase.         

The seasonally adjusted job vacancies rose for the third consecutive quarter, though the rate of increase over the quarter moderated to 3.0 per cent in March 2014 from 9.2 per cent in December 2013 and 5.8 per cent in September 2013.

Job openings continued to outnumber job seekers, though the ratio has eased. The seasonally adjusted ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons declined from 1.43 in December 2013 to 1.33 in March 2014. ― Bernama