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Slow employment growth in the Q1 of 2012

Unemployment rate rises slowly

The number of job vacancies fell to 27,400 in Q1, lower than the 37,600 figure in Q4 of 2011 and 28,300 in Q1 of 2011, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has announced.

The service and construction sectors saw the creation of 19,800 and 8,000 new jobs respectively. However, the number of new jobs in manufacturing has been falling. They were 500 and 1,400 lower than in the past two quarters.

There was a decrease in layoffs, with 2,700 workers affected in Q1 of 2012 compared to 3,250 in Q4 of 2011.

Overall unemployment has risen slightly from 2.0 per cent in December 2011 to 2.1 per cent in March 2012. Similarly, resident unemployment increased from 2.9 per cent to 3.0 per cent, with citizen unemployment moving up from 3.0 per cent to 3.2 per cent.