SINGAPORE, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Ministry of Manpower announced on Friday that preliminary data show the country's labor market held steady from the second quarter of 2017.
According to a press release from the ministry, preliminary estimates showed that on a year-on-year basis, the overall unemployment rate remained the same in the third quarter, while the resident and citizen unemployment rates were higher.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate declined slightly from 2.2 percent in June to 2.1 percent in September, while the unemployment rate for citizens declined from 3.3 percent in June to 3.2 percent in September, and the unemployment rate for residents remained at 3.1 percent.
The decline in total employment, excluding foreign domestic workers, narrowed to 2,500 in the third quarter from 4,200 in the year-earlier period, as the decrease in work permit holders in marine and construction sectors was partly offset by the pickup in employment in services sectors, said the ministry.
The ministry forecast that the resident unemployment rate could remain elevated in the medium term due to on-going economic restructuring, shift in composition of resident labour force and job-skills mismatch. But it predicted that Singapore's labor demand will pick up in the fourth quarter of this year, in line with seasonal hiring as seen in previous years.
Selena Ling, head of Treasury Research & Strategy of OCBC Bank, said Singapore's domestic labor market has stabilized, but is still some distance from fueling short-term wage inflation.
"Looking out to 2018, labor demand should be supportive amid the generally benign macroeconomic environment and uptick in consumer confidence levels, and as the growth and redundancy drags from the construction and offshore marine sectors start to ease," said Ling.
