Singapore (VNA)🐼 - Singapore’s employment rate in 2015 was 0.9 percent or 31,800 more people were employed last year, the lowest annual growth since 2003, said the Manpower Ministry (MOM) on January 28.

Growth in both local and foreign manpower was slower than in previous years, especially in the retail, production and real estate sectors. The number of foreigners employed in 2015 increased 22,600 workers or 2 percent , but that figure was trending lower than those of 2014 and 2013’s 26,000 and 48,400, respectively. Meanwhile, local citizens getting jobs rose by a mere 100 people, far lower than the figure of 96,000 in 2014. According to statistics from MOM, the total number of people employed increased by 15,000 in the last quarter of 2015, higher than the same year’s previous quarters, but lower than the last quarter of 2014’s figure of 40,700. MOM Minister Lim Swee Say attributed the slower growth to the weakening global economy , slower growth of the Singapore economy and tightened supply of foreign manpower. He stressed the local employment growth rate will remain slow over the next five years, at just about one percent a year. MOM’s report also revealed that the country’s unemployment rate in 2015 was 1.9 percent, the same rate as in 2014. Despite the gloomy situation of the global economy, labourers’ average income in 2015 climbed significantly compared with 2014.The average monthly income rose 6.5 percent to 3,798 SGD (2,659 USD) last June.-VNA