Minister: Jobs still aplenty for Singaporeans

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

SINGAPORE, Dec. 13 (Chinese media) -- Singapore's Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said on Saturday that despite the weaker economic outlook, jobs are still aplenty for Singaporeans.

Speaking to the local media at an Indian community event here on Saturday, Shanmugaratnam said that Singaporeans must be confident to fill the vacancies especially with ministries expected to bring forward hiring plans, but there is a need to sustain Singaporeans' readiness for the changing workplace, according to Channel NewsAsia reports.

"In the retail sector, in the hotel sector, front line jobs, service jobs, quite a lot of jobs are available so Singaporeans need to have the confidence so that they can obtain those jobs. We can provide them some training," he said.

More job opportunities can be expected with all ministries looking to accelerate their hiring and spending plans, he said, adding that Singaporeans can take advantage of present wide-ranging job opportunities especially in the healthcare and childcare sectors.

After rising for two consecutive quarters, the overall jobless rate in the city state remained at a seasonally adjusted 2.2 percent in September, unchanged from June this year but higher than 1.7 percent in September last year. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the overall unemployment rate in the country contracted from 2.8 percent in June this year to 1.9 percent in September this year.

Preliminary estimates showed that 2,000 workers, most of them from manufacturing, were retrenched in the third quarter of the year, up from 1,798 in the previous quarter and 1,827 in the third quarter of 2007.

In fact, Singapore's economy fell into recession in the third quarter of the year due to the global financial crisis.