Singapore’s jobless rate surpasses global financial crisis’ high
- Daniel Teo
- Topics: Asia-Pacific, Home Page - News, News, Singapore
Singapore saw its highest unemployment rate in more than a decade, hitting 3.4% in August and surpassing 3.3% recorded during the 2009 global financial crisis.
However, the all-time highest jobless rate for the country remains at 4.8% during the SARS outbreak in 2003.
According to the latest jobs situation report from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on October 7, the overall unemployment rate for August rose 0.4% from July.
It revealed that citizen unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in August, up by 0.3% from July. It is lower than the 4.9% recorded in September 2009.
The resident unemployment rate – of citizens and permanent residents – rose to 4.5% in August from 4.1% in July, but remained lower than the 4.9% recorded in September 2009.
“We observe that while monthly unemployment rates have so far generally remained lower than past recessionary highs, it has been gradually rising,” said the ministry in a press release.
“It remains to be seen if unemployment will rise more quickly in the coming months,” it added.
“We cannot tell at this point in time, whether in the coming months the unemployment rate will uptick at a faster rate or will it stay around about the same,” said Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo.
