SG Budget 2017: Unemployment rate stayed low at 2.1% in 2016

THE unemployment rate in Singapore remained low at 2.1 per cent in 2016, said Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat in Parliament on Monday.

During his Budget speech, Mr Heng noted that redundancies have gone up and more workers are taking longer to find jobs.

He cited sectors such as healthcare and education which offered more jobs, but there were others that shed jobs.

Last year, the resident employment increased while foreign employment contracted. This contraction excludes foreign domestic workers.