Office workers wearing masks cross a street during the lunch hour, amid the outbreak of the coronaviruses COVID - 19 in Singapore, May 12, 2021. SINGAPORE, Jan 28, Reuters - Singapore's manpower ministry said on Friday it expects the country's unemployment rate to fall to pre-pandemic levels in the months ahead, with borders slowly reopening and retrenchments declining.
On Friday, data showed that the preliminary unemployment rate in December was 2.4% compared to 2.5% in November.
Non-resident employment saw growth for the first time in eight quarters, as the country eased border restrictions, and the total employment, excluding migrant domestic workers, increased by 47,400 in the fourth quarter.
According to Friday's preliminary data, the 2021 annual unemployment rate went up to 2.6% from 3.0% in 2020.
It is still higher than the rate of 2.3% in 2019 before the pandemic. The final figures will be released in March.