SINGAPORE'S job market stabilised in the second quarter, with fewer redundancies and more job openings as the economy emerges from its worst recession.

The overall unemployment rate stabilised at a seasonally adjusted 3.3 per cent in June, unchanged from a quarter ago.

Some 116,300 residents were unemployed in June. The seasonally adjusted figure was 91,500, slightly lower than 95,800 in Mar.

Among the resident labour force, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined to 4.6 per cent in June from 4.8 per cent in March as more people deferred job search and pursued courses.

Coupled with stabilising unemployment, the ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons increased slightly over the quarter from a seasonally adjusted 31 to 33 openings per 100 job seekers in June. This was the first increase after five straight quarters of decline.

After declining by 6,200 in Q1, total employment fell for the second consecutive quarter in Q2 by 7,700.

Manufacturing shed 15,900 workers - a loss for the third straight quarter, but losses have moderated from 22,100 in the previous quarter.

Construction (4,700) and services (3,800) employment continued to rise, but at a slower pace.

Within the services sector, the rise is led by community, social and personal services, administrative and support services, and real estate and leasing services.

In contrast, services industries reliant on international trade and visitor arrivals namely hotels and restaurants, transport and storage, wholesale & retail trade and financial services continued to shed workers.

With unemployment rising for five quarters before stabilising in June, long-term unemployment has worsened. The resident long-term unemployment rate rose from 0.5 per cent in June 08 to 1.3 per cent in June 09, a four-year high for June periods.

Some 25,800 or 22 per cent of resident job seekers had been looking for work for at least 25 weeks in June, up from 9,500 or 12 per cent a year ago.

At its peak, there were 30,600 long-term unemployed residents constituting 32 per cent of the unemployed and 1.8 per cent of the labour force in June 02.

Redundancies fell by more than half from the peak of 12,760 in Q1. The improvement largely reflected the sharp fall in redundancies in manufacturing from 9,250 in Q1 to 2,900 in Q2.

Services (2,850) and construction (230) also laid-off fewer workers in Q2 than in the previous quarter (3,170 and 330 respectively).

As manufacturing accounted for over 90 per cent of the decrease, the proportion of workers made redundant from manufacturing shrank from 72 per cent to 48 per cent, while the share coming from services increased from 25 per cent to 48 per cent and construction from 2.6 per cent to 3.9 per cent.

The re-employment rate fell to a new low, reflecting the weak job market. Based on CPF records, 43 per cent of the residents retrenched in Q1 were re-employed by June.

Labour productivity declined over the year by 6.2 per cent in Q2, easing from the 15 per cent contraction in Q1.