by Chuang Peck Ming

(SINGAPORE) While still healthy, Singapore's job market in the final three months of the year is tipped to soften somewhat as the outlook for the economy grows dimmer, according to the latest poll by US-based Manpower, an employment services firm.

Graphic: BT

But compared with 32 other countries, Singapore - along with India and Taiwan - still offers job seekers the best employment prospects, according to the poll of nearly 55,000 employers worldwide.

The net employment outlook - the difference between the percentage of bosses who intend to hire more and the percentage who plan to cut jobs - for a sample of 629 employers in Singapore is a seasonally adjusted 25 per cent for the fourth quarter of 2008.

In the Americas, including the United States, the highest net employment outlook - seasonally adjusted - is 14 per cent. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, it is 10 per cent.

In the Asia-Pacific region, India polled the highest net employment outlook for Q4: 43 per cent. Singapore has the second highest, followed by Taiwan (23 per cent). But compared to Q3, the net employment outlook in most of the countries - 25 out of the 33 - has worsened.

Singapore's net employment outlook for Q4 sank 12 percentage points from Q3 and 28 points from Q4 2007.

With the exception of the transportation & utilities sector - where employers reported a sluggish labour market and plans to reduce staff - all other sectors in Singapore expect to increase headcount in Q4.

The net employment outlook for the transportation & utilities sector in Q4 is a negative 7 per cent - the weakest for the sector since the Manpower poll started in Q3 2003. Against Q3, the sector's net employment outlook plunged 51 percentage points. The drop was steeper year-on-year - down 60 percentage points.

And while manufacturers still intend to hire, the job outlook in the manufacturing sector has darkened a lot more in Q4. The net employment outlook for the sector dropped 37 percentage points from Q3 to 9 per cent in Q4.

Similarly, the net employment outlook for the services as well as finance, insurance & real estate sectors, fell 30 and 25 percentage points respectively to 15 per cent.

Even the net employment outlook of the public administration & education sector, which has the most bullish employment outlook for Q4, tumbled eight percentage points from Q3.

Only the wholesale & retail trade sector has a relatively stable outlook for jobs in Q4, with a net employment outlook of 20 per cent.

This article was first published in The Business Times on September 9, 2008.