Singapore companies sacked fewer workers in the June quarter as exports fuelled an expansion in the economy, but growth in employment was slowing, a government labour market report showed on Wednesday.
Lay-offs in the June quarter totalled 2,055, down 31 percent from the previous quarter and off 60 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Manpower said in a quarterly report that elaborated on data released on August 23.
"Although employment continued to rise, the underlying growth momentum in job creation has softened at the close of the second quarter," it said. As strength in the economy brings more people into the job market, the jobless rate has stayed flat at 4.5 percent since December, when it fell from a 17-year high of 5.5 percent three months earlier in the wake of Singapore's Sars outbreak.