Singapore's unemployment remained low in the December quarter, and was unchanged from the third quarter, preliminary figures released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) revealed Wednesday.
The overall unemployment rate, on a seasonally adjusted basis, held steady at 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter. In the second quarter, the jobless rate was 2.1 percent. At the same time, citizen unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 2.8 percent during the December quarter.
There were around 635,000 persons without a job in Singapore at the end of December, higher than 618,000 in the third quarter.
In the whole of 2013, the average unemployment rate was 1.9 percent, slightly lower than the 2 percent recorded in 2012. The average number unemployed persons remained broadly unchanged at 66,000 during the year.
Data showed that income growth of Singaporeans strengthened last year, and local employment rose at a faster rate as foreign workers continued to moderate.
The number of persons in employment increased by 39,200 in the fourth quarter, faster than the third quarter's gain of 33,100. In 2013, total employment rose by 134,900.
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