The Q3 Labour Market Report is out!

In a nutshell, there was a slight increase in total employment and improvement in citizen unemployment rate.

Sounds dry and boring already right? Don’t worry, we’ve helped to condense the lengthy report into 5 important takeaways for you.

1) Lesser Singaporeans unemployed in Q3

Good news for Singapore! The unemployment rate for citizens dipped from 3.3% to 3.2% in September 2017. However, for residents (PR and people living in Singapore), there is no change in unemployment rate and it continues to stand at 3.1%.

Overall unemployment rate in Singapore is at 2.2%.

2) Lesser work permit given out

Total employment has been declining since the start of the year but in Q3, it has contracted by a smaller extent (-4,100 jobs).

There was a decline of 9400 jobs in Q1 and 7900 jobs in Q2.

The drop in Q3 is mainly due to lesser work permits given out to the Marine and Construction sector.

However, employment growth was observed in sectors like the Community, Social & Personal Services, Accommodation, Financial Services and Professional services.

So if you’re thinking of switching jobs, you know which sectors to consider moving into.

3) Lesser retrenchments

The number of retrenchments went down from 3,640 in Q2 to 3,400 in Q3.

Last year during this period, there was 4,220 retrenchment cases.

66% of retrenched residents in Q3 managed to find jobs within six months of retrenchment and it’s the highest level since Q4 in 2015 (70%).

The highest rates of re-entry into the labour market are the younger workers below 30 (82%) and Production & Transport Operations, Cleaners & Labourers (75%).

4) Ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons improved

This basically tells us if there is a job for every unemployed person out there.

The ratio for Q3 improved to 0.87, which is an uptrend since December 2016 (0.77).

5) 2018 GDP growth forecast

Ministry of Trade and Industry’s 2018 GDP growth forecast is between 1.5% to 3.5% so local employment is expected to continue to grow next year.

However, jobs-sills mismatch will continue to be a challenge. If you’re looking for a new job or worried about losing your job, do check out Careers Connect under WSG or NTUC’s e2i for career guidance and coaching.

2017 is coming to end but we hope 2018 will be a better year for all!

If you’d like to contribute your story to us, drop us an email at editors@sureboh.sg and we’ll review it. We read each submission that comes to us within two weeks of receiving it.