Retrenchments at a 7-year low last year

Singapore

THE labour market improved on several fronts over the whole of last year, with retrenchments down to the lowest level since 2011.

Total employment growth last year was the highest since 2014; the number of people with jobs rose by 38,300. This was a reversal from 2017, when the size of the workforce shrank.

More local residents - meaning Singaporeans and permanent residents (PRs) - were in jobs, and the annual average unemployment rate and resident long-term unemployment rate fell slightly, compared with the year before.

However, this was mainly thanks to the good performance in the first nine months of the year, going by data from the Manpower Ministry (MOM) released on Thursday.

In the fourth quarter, total employment grew more slowly, and there was an uptick in the seasonally-adjusted resident unemployment and long-term unemployment rates, compared with the previous qua…