The seasonal adjusted citizen unemployment rate of Singapore inched up slightly from 3.1 per cent in December 2018 to 3.2 per cent in March 2019, the Ministry of Manpower announced on Friday.
Meanwhile, the overall unemployment rate and the resident unemployment rate held steady this March at 2.2 per cent and 3.0 per cent, respectively, according to a government report.
The country’s employment, excluding foreign domestic workers, increased by 12,000 in the first quarter of 2019, compared to 14,700 in the previous quarter and 400 in the year-earlier period, reports Xinhua.
The ministry said the employment growth in the Q1 of 2019 was mainly in services sectors, such as community, social and personal services, administrative and support services, professional services, financial services, and transportation and storage.
The city-state's construction sector saw its employment increase slightly in the first quarter, after 11 consecutive quarters of decline. Its manufacturing sector continued to shed workers.
"Preliminary indicators suggest that the labour market is holding up, though citizen unemployment rate continued to inch up," said the ministry.