But the job gains were lower than the 36,500 in the first quarter, as manufacturing shed 2,400 jobs, after adding 3,100 in the earlier quarter. -- ST PHOTO: JOYCE FANG

Sinagpore's companies added an estimated 26,500 jobs to the total employment, continuing the gains for the third straight quarters as the economy expanded strongly from April to June.

But the job gains were lower than the 36,500 in the first quarter, as manufacturing shed 2,400 jobs, after adding 3,100 in the earlier quarter, said the Ministry of Manpower in a statement on Friday morning.

Services contributed the bulk of the new jobs, hiring 27,400 workers in the second quarter, while construction added 1,800 workers.

MOM said based on preliminary estimates, 1,700 workers were retrenched and 200 had their contracts terminated prematurely, resulting in 1,900 redundancies. This was significantly lower than the 2,400 workers made redundant in the first quarter.

Unemployment broadly stabilised during the quarter, after declining sharply at the end of last year. Preliminary estimates show that the seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate edged up slightly from 2.2 per cent in March to 2.3 per cent in June - an improvement from 3.2 per cent a year ago.

Similarly, among the resident labour force, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose slightly from 3.2 per cent to 3.3 per cent. Still, this was below the 4.5 per cent in June last year.

The higher jobless rate was also due to more people seeking jobs as tertiary graduates entered the labour market and students looking for work during the mid-year school holidays.

An estimated 87,800 residents were unemployed in June. The seasonally adjusted figure was 68,100, said MOM.