Singapore's jobless rate went down to 2.5% in last December, the lowest in four consecutive years. This, combined with the unemployment rate of the three earlier quarters of the year, brought the average unemployment rate to 3.2% for 2005. In economics term, a full employment situation will be expected if the current fall in unemployment is continued, and which is very likely, as analysts speculate.
Full employment situation does not refer to a phenomenon with no jobless people in the economy, but rather it means a state where unemployment is 3 percent or lower. However, it does not mean that there will be a job for everyone though it will be not as difficult to find a job. In times of full employment, more consumption is to be expected with higher incomes, and this consumption has to be met by equal amount of production from the unemployed to be employed to produce them, and furthermore they may either be reluctant to be employed to meet this surge in demand for goods and services, or if not, are not skilled sufficiently to meet the demands of the job.
Secondly, as Singapore gradually upgrades its economy by modifying the proportions of its industries, the low-skilled will find it still as hard to find work as the availability of their jobs are reduced in supply. Ever since its independence, Singapore has been quick to recognize the current urgent needs to adapt with the rest of the world. Thus, it has moved from a primary-based and to a secondary-based and now to a tertiary and quaternary-based economy, with some elements of secondary industry infused to aid in hard physical infrastructural and manufacturing production. Thus, this structural unemployment will not affect those with skills pertinent to the needs of our current economic situation, but even then, such people should be wary, and are encouraged to be flexible and adapt to new tasks and duration of work should they still want to keep their job. The National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) has rejoiced in the good news, but affirms that structural unemployment will continue to be a problem for some, especially as their jobs have shifted overseas, where wages are lower and the workers are willing to work longer hours with less favourable conditions.
The increase in employment rates could be due to the economy's fine performance for the last year and thus more companies and workers have reserved more hotel rooms and restaurants for the annual celebrations for a good harvest. Even in the usually dull construction industry, economic growth also was able to generate 8500 jobs last year. This is merely overshadowed by the gains in the services industry-the most prosperous part and the focus of our economy. Three out of every four jobs created in the last quarter was in the services sector, which includes financial services, tourism and the like. Even manufacturing also benefited, with 6500 jobs created over the same period.
As a result, workers have started on a trend of job-hopping, albeit a diminished version in contrast to the rates of job-hopping in the mid-1990s. nevertheless, it is a sign that more jobs are at last available and that people are more confident about getting another job.
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IDIOT.