SINGAPORE - Total employment is estimated to have grown by 15,400 in the third quarter, reflecting Singapore's recovering economy.

This ends losses seen in the first (-6,200) and second (-7,700) quarter of the year. However, the gains are still significantly lower than the 55,700 seen in the third quarter of 2008.

Apart from manufacturing, the major sectors showed growth, according to figures released by the Ministry of Manpower.

Services employment rose by 13,400 in the third quarter, significantly higher than the gains of 7,500 in the first and 3,800 in the second quarter this year, but lower than 34,300 in the third quarter last year.

Construction continued to add workers (8,100), higher than the increase in the preceding quarter (4,700) and comparable to the first quarter of 2009 (8,300).

Manufacturing shed workers for the fourth consecutive quarter, but the decline (-6,600) was substantially lower than in the first two quarters this year.

Figures for retrenchment and redundancy also improved, with an estimated 2,000 workers retrenched and 200 workers whose contracts were terminated prematurely.

This is significantly lower than the 5,980 workers made redundant in the second quarter of 2009, comprising 5,170 workers retrenched and 810 workers whose contracts were terminated prematurely.

Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.4% in September 2009 from 3.3% in June 2009, while on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the overall unemployment rate decreased from 4.1% in June 2009 to 2.9% in September 2009