Singapore Employers Added More Jobs Than Estimated

June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore employers added more jobs than initially estimated last quarter, pushing the unemployment rate to the lowest level in almost two years as a strengthening economy boosted hiring sentiment.

The city state added 36,500 jobs, compared with an earlier forecast of 34,000, according to revised figures released by the Ministry of Manpower today. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 2.2 percent in the three months through March from 2.3 percent the previous quarter.

The opening of Singapore’s two casino resorts this year, which include a theme park and convention centers, is spurring tourism and fueling employment. The job gains have led to the first increase in average wages in more than a year, supporting consumer spending. A separate report today may show retail sales resumed growth in April, according to the median forecast of eight economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

“The hospitality industry with the opening of the casino resorts is leading the way in hiring while the rebound in export demand is supporting jobs growth in the manufacturing sector,” said Vishnu Varathan, an economist at Forecast Pte in Singapore. “The tightening of the labor market may lead to a build-up in wage pressures.”

Singapore’s economy expanded an annualized 38.6 percent from the previous three months in the first quarter, and the government has raised its growth forecast twice this year as Asia leads a rebound from last year’s global slump. The nation expects the economy to grow as much as 9 percent this year.

Services, Manufacturing

“The strong economic recovery has led to more people securing jobs,” the ministry said. “Employment grew strongly, contributing to an improvement in unemployment for the second straight quarter as redundancies remained at pre-recessionary levels.”

Services companies, such as Genting Singapore Plc, added 33,400 positions in the first quarter, while the manufacturing industry created 3,100 jobs in the same period. The construction industry lost 400 workers, the report showed.

There were 37,300 job vacancies as of March, compared with 33,800 at the end of December, according to today’s report. Average wages before adjusting for inflation rose 3.7 percent in the three months through March from a year earlier, after declining for four quarters.

Singapore’s unemployment rate may be 2 percent by the end of 2010, according to the median estimate in a survey of 19 economists by the Monetary Authority of Singapore released last week.