Singapore employers expanded payrolls for a second straight quarter as the island’s new casino resorts started hiring amid a strengthening economy.

 

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 2.1% in the three months ended December from 3.4% in the previous quarter, the Ministry of Manpower said today. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of seven economists was for an unchanged rate. The city-state added 38,700 new jobs last quarter, bringing the total number to 38,800 in 2009.

 

Last quarter, the government extended a wage subsidy program for employers set to expire at the end of the year to avoid an increase in job losses that may derail the city-state’s economic recovery. The opening of Singapore’s two casino resorts this year, which will include a theme park and convention centers, is fueling employment in services.

 

“Economic sentiment has improved and more companies are planning to hire this year compared to 2009,” Tetsuji Sano, a Singapore-based economist at Nomura Holdings Inc., said before the report. “The economic recovery may also attract more people to reenter the labor market to look for jobs. There’s no doubt that this year will be a better year for job numbers.”

 

Employers fired 1,300 workers in the fourth quarter, and another 200 were released from their contracts early. A total of 22,700 people were fired in 2009, the most in eight years. About 30,000 workers were retrenched in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis in 1998, while about 26,000 people lost their jobs in the 2001 recession.

 

The manufacturing industry added 1,400 jobs in the last three months of 2009, reversing four quarters of declines. About 43,000 manufacturing jobs were lost last year.

 

Service industries added 32,100 positions in the fourth quarter, while construction companies added 4,700 new workers, the report showed.

 

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said this week that productivity needs to be increased “sharply” for the island to retain its competitiveness.

 

Singapore’s labor market has “stabilized” as business and hiring sentiment have picked up in recent months, Trade Minister Lim Hng Kiang said Jan. 11. More companies were planning to increase headcounts in the last quarter of 2009 than earlier in the year, he said.

 

“The unemployment rate, however, is likely to stay up for some time as it typically lags economic recovery,” Lim said.

 

The jobless rate averaged 3% in 2009, from 2.2% the previous year.

 

Genting Singapore Plc unit Resorts World Sentosa started accepting guests at its four hotels and 10 restaurants this month, while Las Vegas Sands Corp. says it may open the Marina Bay Sands in April.

 

Singapore attracted $11.8 billion of fixed- asset investment last year that is expected to create about 15,200 jobs when completed, the Economic Development Board said Jan. 25. This year, the government is targeting as much as $12 billion in such investments that may generate as many as 17,000 jobs.