SINGAPORE: Singapore's unemployment rate in September fell to a seasonally-adjusted 1.7 percent, a decade low, as the economy maintained its rapid expansion.

The economy created 57,600 jobs in the third quarter of this year, bringing the total employment gains for the first three quarters of 2007 to 171,500, which is close to the 176,000 for the whole of last year.

Amid the strong job creation, the seasonally-adjusted overall jobless rate fell to 1.7% in September 2007 from 2.3% in June 2007.

Compared to a year ago, the jobless rate has fallen by a full percentage point from 2.7% in September 2006.

"The prevailing unemployment rate is the lowest in a decade, having improved to around pre-Asian crisis levels," said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in a statement on Wednesday, referring to the regional financial meltdown in 1997.

The number of jobs created in the third quarter is substantially higher than the increase of 43,000 in the same quarter last year but lower than the record gains of 64,400 in the previous quarter.

Services continued to lead the employment gains, adding 34,500 workers in the third quarter of 2007.

The manufacturing sector posted gains of 11,800.

Driven by the growth in building activities, construction increased its workforce by 10,800, continuing the rapid increase of the previous quarter.

On retrenchment, the MOM report said initial findings showed that 1,700 workers were laid off in the third quarter of 2007.

The majority of the workers retrenched were from manufacturing (1,200). Another 500 workers laid off were from the services industries.

Among Singapore citizens and permanent residents, the resident unemployment rate fell significantly to 2.3% in September 2007 from 3.1% in June 2007 and 3.6% in September 2006.

The sharp improvement in unemployment rate partly reflected an easing in the increase in resident labour supply over the past two quarters, following rapid gains in residents entering the labour market in 2005 and 2006.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the overall jobless rate fell from 2.9% in June 2007 to 1.5% in September 2007 when this year's batch of tertiary graduates who were looking for jobs in the earlier quarter secured employment.

With the tight labour market, the rate is also lower than 2.4% in September 2006.

Among the resident labour force, the non-adjusted jobless rate was 2.1%, also lower than 4.0% in June 2007 and 3.2% in the same period a year ago.

An estimated 40,300 residents were unemployed in June 2007. The seasonally adjusted figure was 45,400.

Singapore's economy grew 9.4 percent in the third quarter and is forecast by the government to expand 7-8 percent for the full year.

The economy expanded 7.9 percent last year, one of the highest growth rates in Asia. - CNA/ir

guess i am the 1.7%...

if it also happens in the bad time, then it is really super job done...

however, currently most of the countries, the jobless rate is low....

Dont be too happy, next year will be slower growth due to US sub prime debacle, and recession

So happy ar… next year there’s a bunch of dragon babies out…

When Singaporeans and PRs are lumped together, it is difficult to judge if Singaporeans alone really benefited.

After all, we have seen or heard that Chinese and Indian nationals are receiving their PRs with such ease. At the rate the economy is growing, expect to see more of such reports during our PM's reign. Only question begging is: How many Singaporeans alone have benefited?

I guess they went to CBD and took population samples from there.

everything that has a beginning

has an end

ok
so it that good or not
??

actually if you look at the various ways unemployment are defined, it may not mean such a good figure. In some countings, pple who have been unemployed for 3 months, or something like that are counted out of the workforce

Originally posted by hisoka:

actually if you look at the various ways unemployment are defined, it may not mean such a good figure. In some countings, pple who have been unemployed for 3 months, or something like that are counted out of the workforce

as long as they are consistent with how they calculate a drop in unemployment is always good news.

Originally posted by Gazelle:

as long as they are consistent with how they calculate a drop in unemployment is always good news.

nope if they just exclude those unemployed more than 3 months, it can just mean that there are more pple who are unemployed for 4 months and above

Originally posted by hisoka:

nope if they just exclude those unemployed more than 3 months, it can just mean that there are more pple who are unemployed for 4 months and above

thats only IF.

so how do they actually come to the figure of 1.7%???

I seriously felt tat there's somewhere wrong...

Either there maybe more jobless ppl out there now or the employed ppl now are getting paid lesser... as compared to last time

Originally posted by Gazelle:

thats only IF.

So why doesn't the government show us the figures and be more transparent about it? At least it'll stop people casting unwarranted aspersions or questioning the credibility of the statistics. If there's nothing wrong with the figures, why hide them?

Originally posted by dakkon_blackblade:

So why doesn't the government show us the figures and be more transparent about it? At least it'll stop people casting unwarranted aspersions or questioning the credibility of the statistics. If there's nothing wrong with the figures, why hide them?

x2
we want to see the statistics breakdown

Originally posted by dakkon_blackblade:

So why doesn't the government show us the figures and be more transparent about it? At least it'll stop people casting unwarranted aspersions or questioning the credibility of the statistics. If there's nothing wrong with the figures, why hide them?

Government statistics never lie. They just give misleading facts to give a false impression of whats is really happening. When trying to argue that Singaporeans cannot manage their own money, they argued that between 2003-2006 most Singaporeans have made "realised losses", or cannot beat the CPF 2.5% rate. But during this period, the stock market had one of the greatest bull run and many Singaporeans had "unrealised gains" because they did not sell their stocks/ unit trust.

They simply use selective data to advance their own arguments.

Who knows, the real reason for the low jobless rate could be due to the increase of "resident population" such as maids and construction workers. We just had a larger denominator, thats all.

unemployement is low....yipee

but for those employed, pay also low......yipee

Ha! Who believes this crap?

Even if one is employed, so what? It doesn't guarantee that you can survive when costs keep escalating, does it?

A person needs only one job.
That person do not care if there are a million jobs, two million jobs.
He just needs one job.
He don't care for statistics, no matter how rosy.

Good news such as these are like mock cakes.
Beautiful decorations, looks delicious, but can't be eaten..

Originally posted by dakkon_blackblade:

So why doesn't the government show us the figures and be more transparent about it? At least it'll stop people casting unwarranted aspersions or questioning the credibility of the statistics. If there's nothing wrong with the figures, why hide them?

information on how they calculate is easily available on government website.

Its because FT took the jobs. Hence it the jobless rate decreased. Unforunately, the Singaporeans are still jobless.

the old saying goes;"there are lies, damned lies and statistics".

i went to one of the foreign bank for interview in the IT field, saw the entire whole depts, not a single singaporean in sight. all indian FTs. the interviewers are indians too. Jobs? ya, there are jobs... but for who?