Singapore's unemployment rates fall in Q1

SINGAPORE, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Ministry of Manpower announced on Friday that Singapore's labor market improved slightly in the first quarter of 2018, supported by sustained expansion in economic activity.

It said in a press release that the seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate declined from 2.1 percent in December 2017 to 2 percent in March 2018, and resident unemployment rate fell from 3 percent to 2.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the citizen unemployment rate was unchanged at 3 percent.

The ministry said the total employment, excluding foreign domestic workers, contracted by 2,100 in the first three months of this year, after a seasonal increase in the fourth quarter of 2017. It attributes the decline in the first quarter to a decrease in work permit holders in construction and marine shipyard.

It said that addressing potential job-skills mismatches remained critical, as Singapore's economy restructures and the profile of the resident labor force evolves. Enditem