HELPING women to rejoin the workforce and getting mature workers to stay employed beyond retirement are some of the goals for Singapore's labour movement this year.

In his May Day message released on Saturday, NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say said the country had achieved a a record high of 76.5 per cent employment rate for people aged 25 to 64 last year.

'We want to do even better by assisting more female Singaporeans to rejoin the workforce and helping mature Singaporeans stay longer in employment beyond the official retirement age of 62,' said Mr Lim.

The NTUC chief said Singapore had a good year in 2007, with the economy growing at 7.7 per cent, which was much higher than the world's average of 4.9 per cent.

He added that Singapore also created about 234,900 jobs, cutting the unemployment rate to 2.1 per cent, the lowest since 1997.

Mr Lim said, 'In fact, Singapore was the only economy in the world to attain a unique double achievement in 2007 - growing faster than the global economy, and sustaining full employment. This is an outstanding performance we should be proud of.'

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Mr Lim warned of slower growth, higher unemployment and inflation rates, with rising energy and fuel costs.

He said Singapore is aiming for 4 to 6 per cent growth rate and another year of full employment.

He said, 'It is important that we keep growing our economy and creating jobs for our people, because we believe that this is the best way to help Singaporeans cope with a higher cost of living and live a more meaningful life.'

'In time to come, our vision for Singapore is to be one of the very few nations with triple achievement of full employment, higher growth rate compared to the global economy, and one of the highest employment rates for all ages and both genders of workers in the world.'

The NTUC chief called all to work together and to do more for the workers. He also wished all workers a very happy May Day.

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