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