Almost 13,000 workers laid off in 2014 as more businesses restructure

Mostly from the services and construction sectors.

Data released today by the Ministry of Manpower (MoM) showed that the number of laid-off workers rose to 12,800 in 2014, an increase of 10.7% from the 11,560 redundancies recorded in 2013.

According to the MoM, the increase in redundancies was brought about by business restructuring in the services and construction sectors.

A total of 7,1000 workers were made redundant in the services sector, up 30.8% from 5,430 workers in 2013. Meanwhile, 1,500 workers were laid off in the construction sector, up from 1,120 redundancies last year.

Redundancies in the manufacturing sector declined from 5,000 to 4,200. For the whole of 2014, the overall unemployment rate was pegged at 2.0%, broadly unchanged from 2013 figures.