Total employment contracted by 12,400 in the second quarter of 2009, according to preliminary estimates.

This doubles the losses in the first quarter (-6,200). This is the first time that employment has contracted for two consecutive quarters since the 2003 economic downturn.

Manufacturing bore the brunt of job losses, with a decrease of 17,600.

Construction increased its workforce (3,400) but the gains were lower than in earlier quarters (8,300 in 1Q 2009 and 22,400 in 2Q 2008). Services added 2,100 workers, also showing lower gains than before (7,500 in 1Q 2009 and 38,300 in 2Q 2008).

Retrenchment and redundancy

According to preliminary estimates released by the Ministry of Manpower, 4,800 workers were retrenched and 700 contracts were terminated prematurely, resulting in a total of 5,500 workers made redundant in the second quarter of 2009.

This shows a sharp drop from first quarter figures of 12,760 redundancies. In the first quarter of 2009, 10,900 workers were retrenched and 1,860 workers had contracts terminated prematurely.

Redundancies in manufacturing had the highest drop, from 9,250 in the first quarter to only 2,600 in the current quarter.

Services laid off 2,400 workers, lower than the 3,170 in the preceding quarter. The remaining 500 were displaced from construction.

Unemployment

According to a statement released by the Ministry of Manpower, the overall unemployment rate stabilised at a seasonally adjusted 3.3% in June 2009, unchanged from a quarter ago.

Among the resident labour force, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined from 4.8% in March 2009 to 4.6% in June 2009.

More people are deferring job searches and pursuing courses, including those supported under SPUR, in light of the difficult job market conditions.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the overall unemployment rate rose from 3.0% in March 2009 to 4.2% in June 2009.

Among the resident labour force, the non-adjusted unemployment rate was 6.0% in June 2009, higher than the 4.4% in the previous quarter. This reflects the increase in job seekers as tertiary graduates entered the labour market and students sought employment during the mid-year school vacation.

An estimated 116,600 residents were unemployed in June 2009. The seasonally adjusted figure was 91,800.