singapore lost jobs at a slower pace in the third quarter than in the second quarter and the domestic labor market is expected to continue to recover for the rest of 2021 and into 2022 albeit unevenly across sectors the manpower ministry said wednesday the countrys total employment excluding migrant domestic workers fell 2400 in the third quarter compared with a 16300 decline in the previous quarter this was because resident employment rose strongly by 19100 in the third quarter while nonresident employment fell 21500 a pace similar to that in the prior quarter the ministry said the number of retrenchments dropped to 1900 in the third quarter from 2340 in the second quarter meanwhile the number of job vacancies rose to 98700 in september from 92100 in june on a seasonally adjusted basis while the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell 01 percentage point from august to 26 in september the data showed