For context, in September 2009, when the Global Financial Crisis paralysed the banking system, the unemployment rate in Singapore was 4.9%. Earlier, during the height of the SARS pandemic in September 2003, the corresponding rate was 6.2%.
Singapore’s labour market is still under the weather from the Covid-19 health-turned-economic crisis, despite the resumption of activities such dining and in-store shopping. Resident unemployment edged up 0.4 percentage points to 4.5% in August — slightly higher than the 0.3 percentage point increase in July, when Singapore’s resident unemployment rate was 4.1%.
“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 of Manpower (MOM) in its weekly “Jobs Situation Report” on Oct 7.
