9,990 Singapore workers were laid off in 2011

That's higher than the 9,800 firings in 2010, but the bigger question is: How fast did they find work?

According to the Ministry of Manpower, the majority or 59% of residents who lost their jobs found work within six months, but this rate of re-entry seems to be slowing down.

Redundant workers could have benefited from the current tight labor market, as seen in the declining job vacancies now at 4.3%, Job prospects have been expanding in the services and construction sectors, both of which posted employment gains in 2011.

Resignations, though, are on a slight decline.

"Layoffs increased in the fourth quarter of 2011, resulting in a slightly higher number of workers affected in the whole year than in 2010. 3,250 workers were made redundant in the fourth quarter of 2011, higher than the 1,960 laid off in the preceding quarter. For the full year of 2011, 9,990 workers were made redundant, slightly higher than the 9,800 in 2010," said MoM.

"Based on Central Provident Fund records, nearly six in ten (59%) residents laid off in the third quarter of 2011 secured employment by December 2011. This rate of re-entry into employment within six months of redundancy dipped slightly from 60% in September 2011, after rising for three consecutive quarters," it said.

"Job vacancies declined by 4.3% over the quarter to 51,700 in December 2011, but was still 17% higher compared to a year ago (44,100). After adjusting for seasonality, job vacancies increased over the quarter by 13%, reversing from the decline of 13% in September 2011. As unemployment was broadly unchanged over the quarter, the seasonally adjusted ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons edged up from 1.15 in September 2011 to 1.18 in December 2011.Nevertheless, this was significantly lower than the recent peak of 1.39 in March 2011," it added.

"The average monthly recruitment rate edged up slightly in the fourth quarter of 2011. The seasonally adjusted rate was 2.8% compared with 2.7% in the previous quarter. On the other hand, the average monthly resignation rate eased by 0.2%-point to a seasonally adjusted 1.9%," it said further.

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