After States Times Review slammed the Singapore government for covering up the unemployment statistic of Singaporean citizens in their earlier employment report two weeks ago, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) today (Dec 13) revised their employment statistic and brought the key indicator back into their latest employment report for the third quarter of 2017.
You may download the latest employment report here.
The latest statistic also revealed that unemployment has continued to increase with long-term unemployment hitting a 8-year-high. Below is a summary of the stats:
-Long-term unemployment rate (exceeding 25 weeks) increased to 0.8%
-Singaporeans constitutes 87% (62,300) of the total unemployed (71,600) residents
-Singaporean unemployment rate at 3.2% at Q4, with 2017’s average unemployment rate at 3.38%, an 8-year-high
-For every 100 unemployed, there are only 87 jobs available
-There are 4,100 less jobs in the market today compared to three months ago
Despite having one of the worst unemployment in Singapore history, the MOM report claimed otherwise saying that there has been “improvements”. Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say did not comment on the poor performance of the employment market but has earlier claimed credit for improved GDP. However, the Minister’s claim was shortly refuted by economists who explained that the GDP recovery was due to cyclical global market conditions and has nothing to do with government efforts.