Preliminary estimates by the Ministry of Manpower show that total employment declined marginally by 1,000 in the first quarter of 2009, as the economy continued to worsen.

The manufacturing sector was severely affected by falling external demand. Employment in this sector has declined by 19,900, deeper than the 7,000 loss in the earlier quarter.

Construction employment grew by 8,500 in the first quarter of 2009 due to a strong pipeline of building projects. However, this is still lower than the gains in the earlier quarters.

Services added 10,300 workers, which is also a substantially lower figure than previous quarters.

Retrenchment and redundancy

The number of workers retrenched rose to 10,800 in the first quarter of 2009 from 7,500 in the previous quarter. Together with 1,800 workers whose contracts were terminated prematurely in the first quarter of 2009, total redundancy increased to 12,600, higher than the 9,410 in the previous quarter.

Most of the workers affected by redundancy in the first quarter of 2009 came from manufacturing which laid off 9,000 workers, mainly from the electronics industry. Another 2,900 workers were laid off from services and 700 from construction

Unemployment

Reflecting the sharp deterioration in economic conditions, the overall unemployment rate rose from 2.5% in December 2008 to 3.2% in March 2009. Among the resident labour force, the unemployment rate increased from 3.6% in December 2008 to a five-year high of 4.8% in March 2009.