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16-06-2011, 05:18 AM
Low unemployment means people now have the means to spend, spend and.....spend! 
Business Times - 16 Jun 2011
Unemployment hits 3-year low at 1.9%
By CHUANG PECK MING
(SINGAPORE) After running over-time to meet the demands of the year-end festive season, the job creation machinery slowed down slightly in the first three months of the year. But that has not eased the labour market.
With the economy still humming healthily, the jobs market has grown even tighter as the unemployment rate hit a three- year low of 1.9 per cent in March, down from 2.2 per cent in December, according to the final job numbers for the first quarter released yesterday.
'The labour market tightened further, amid healthy economic growth in the first quarter of 2011,' the Ministry of Manpower said in a statement.
'Fewer workers were laid off and unemployment improved to a three-year low,' it added. 'With strong manpower demand, the ratio of job openings to job seekers rose to pre-recessionary levels.'
While the number of jobs added to the economy was revised up from a preliminary 23,700 to 28,300, it was still a drop from the previous quarter when extra hirings for the holiday season helped pushed employment up by 33,900.
Nevertheless, Credit Suisse economist Wu Kun Lung maintained that the jobs created in the first quarter - and still coming largely from services - was strong, noting that manufacturing added 100 jobs, its first net job gain in a year.
And reflecting that the labour market is near bursting point, nominal average earning took off further from the growth of the preceding four quarters to hit 8.5 per cent.
Only an unusually high inflation took the hike in real earnings down to a more pedestrian 3.2 per cent. This was a tad lower than the 3.4 per cent growth posted in the previous quarter, but still higher than the 2.1-2.8 per cent in the first three quarters of 2010.
Mr Wu said that wage pressure should remain on the upside. 'The ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons rose further in Q1, reaching its highest level since Q4 2007 and was at a level consistent with double-digit wage growth in the past.'
The seasonally adjusted number of job openings jumped from 104 to 139 over the quarter for every 100 job seekers in March, according to MOM's figures.
'This was comparable to the pre-recessionary high of 140 openings for 100 job seekers in December 2007,' it noted.
The number of workers put out of work by layoffs and premature termination of contracts fell from 3,190 in the final quarter of 2010 to 2,750 in the first quarter.
But job hopping held steady despite the tighter labour market. The monthly hiring and resignation rates averaged 2.6 per cent and 2 per cent respectively, the same as a year ago.
'After adjusting for seasonality, the rates had largely stabilised since the first quarter of 2010, after increasing from the recessionary-low in the second quarter of 2009,' MOM said.
Labour productivity growth, however, slowed from 7.8 per cent in the previous quarter to 4.5 per cent in the first quarter, as output expansion eased from the initial strong cyclical rebound.
Business Times - 16 Jun 2011
Unemployment hits 3-year low at 1.9%
By CHUANG PECK MING
(SINGAPORE) After running over-time to meet the demands of the year-end festive season, the job creation machinery slowed down slightly in the first three months of the year. But that has not eased the labour market.
With the economy still humming healthily, the jobs market has grown even tighter as the unemployment rate hit a three- year low of 1.9 per cent in March, down from 2.2 per cent in December, according to the final job numbers for the first quarter released yesterday.
'The labour market tightened further, amid healthy economic growth in the first quarter of 2011,' the Ministry of Manpower said in a statement.
'Fewer workers were laid off and unemployment improved to a three-year low,' it added. 'With strong manpower demand, the ratio of job openings to job seekers rose to pre-recessionary levels.'
While the number of jobs added to the economy was revised up from a preliminary 23,700 to 28,300, it was still a drop from the previous quarter when extra hirings for the holiday season helped pushed employment up by 33,900.
Nevertheless, Credit Suisse economist Wu Kun Lung maintained that the jobs created in the first quarter - and still coming largely from services - was strong, noting that manufacturing added 100 jobs, its first net job gain in a year.
And reflecting that the labour market is near bursting point, nominal average earning took off further from the growth of the preceding four quarters to hit 8.5 per cent.
Only an unusually high inflation took the hike in real earnings down to a more pedestrian 3.2 per cent. This was a tad lower than the 3.4 per cent growth posted in the previous quarter, but still higher than the 2.1-2.8 per cent in the first three quarters of 2010.
Mr Wu said that wage pressure should remain on the upside. 'The ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons rose further in Q1, reaching its highest level since Q4 2007 and was at a level consistent with double-digit wage growth in the past.'
The seasonally adjusted number of job openings jumped from 104 to 139 over the quarter for every 100 job seekers in March, according to MOM's figures.
'This was comparable to the pre-recessionary high of 140 openings for 100 job seekers in December 2007,' it noted.
The number of workers put out of work by layoffs and premature termination of contracts fell from 3,190 in the final quarter of 2010 to 2,750 in the first quarter.
But job hopping held steady despite the tighter labour market. The monthly hiring and resignation rates averaged 2.6 per cent and 2 per cent respectively, the same as a year ago.
'After adjusting for seasonality, the rates had largely stabilised since the first quarter of 2010, after increasing from the recessionary-low in the second quarter of 2009,' MOM said.
Labour productivity growth, however, slowed from 7.8 per cent in the previous quarter to 4.5 per cent in the first quarter, as output expansion eased from the initial strong cyclical rebound.
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