The jobs are going to China and other cheaper Asian countries, the city state's umbrella labour union organisation said.

Citing data from unions at 18 companies, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) said in its weekly newsletter that 42,464 jobs had been lost for good between January 1997 and May this year.

The disk-drive sector was hardest hit - 9000 workers were shed, making up 21 per cent of the total loss.

Disk drive maker Seagate Technology alone laid off 5522 workers, the largest number by a single firm over the past five years.

Appliance manufacturers, including Philips, Sanyo, Hitachi and Aiwa, let go another 8572 workers, a fifth of all layoffs.

Computer giant Hewlett-Packard Asia Pacific, which expects further job cuts of about 10 per cent of its regional workforce, laid off 1209 between 1999 and last year.

Singapore, with just 4 million people and a labour force of 2.1 million, cannot afford to lose many jobs as it claws out of recession - especially in areas such as electronics that still drive the economy despite competition from cheaper rivals.

The unemployment rate was a seasonally adjusted 4.5 per cent in March, higher than December's 4.4 per cent and at levels seen during Asia's financial crisis of 1997-98.

About half of the 18 companies surveyed by the union congress have shut their Singapore operations, and the other half moved part or all of their production facilities to countries such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Restructuring, high operating and labour costs and the economic downturn were the main reasons for cutting jobs in Singapore, the congress said.

"A worker in Singapore will cost S$1000 (NZ$1152) per month or more, but there is a bountiful stream of workers in China who will gladly work for S$100 per month," Manpower Minister Lim Boon Heng told the Sunday Times newspaper.

"Once the factories relocate, these jobs are gone. That is why we should lower our wage costs, to slow down the pace of relocation, keep the jobs for as long as we can."

Figures have shown that the export-driven state is emerging from its worst downturn since 1964.

But structural unemployment is still a thorn in the side of the government as it seeks to keep Singapore competitive by cutting business costs and moving away from electronics into areas such as pharmaceuticals and health sciences.

A Manpower Ministry labour market survey issued last week showed that despite an easing of unemployment in the first quarter this year to 4857 people - about half the level in each of the two previous quarters - job creation remains weak.

The re-employment rate has hit a new low: only half the people laid off in the fourth quarter of last year had found a new job by March, versus 57 per cent in December. Older and lower-skilled workers are among the hardest hit.

"The retrenched workers will not fit into the new investments that have come in. These are of higher value added, able to pay for the land and the labour costs," said the congress. "But they require skilled workers."

- REUTERS

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