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SINGAPORE: Singapore's labour market continued to tighten as demand for manpower rose in the first three months of this year, said the Manpower Ministry in its quarterly labour market report.
And as employers hired to cope with current and anticipated output, productivity has declined and wage pressures have continued to rise.
For the January-March period this year, total employment grew by 49,400.
Although this fell below the seasonally high gains of 51,500 in the October-December 2006 period, it surpassed the 45,000 in the first quarter of 2006.
The buoyant economy in the first quarter of this year also generated a large number of job vacancies, which hit 32,200 in March - 30 percent more than a year ago.
But with the strengthened employment prospects, unemployment has also gone up.
According to the Ministry, the total unemployment rate in March was 2.9 percent, compared to 2.6 percent in December last year.
Among residents - Singaporeans and permanent residents - the jobless figure was 4 percent, up from 3.6 percent in December 2006.
This was the result of more people entering the labour market on the back of favourable economic conditions.
As for retrenchments, the report said 1,964 workers were laid off in the first quarter of this year, fewer than the 3,215 in the previous quarter.
CPF records showed that nearly 59% of those retrenched by the private sector in the last quarter of 2006 found jobs by March this year. - CNA/ir
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