"Sustained economic growth should lead to further employment growth," Ng told parliament.

"However, we need to be wary of a slowdown in the global economy due to higher oil prices.

"Even so, (the) unemployment rate is likely to end the year at or slightly below four percent."

The unemployment rate at the end of the September quarter stood at 3.4 percent, down from 4.5 percent at the end of the three months to June and 5.5 percent in the same period last year.

The economy created more than 16,600 jobs in the September quarter, the strongest quarterly gain in three-and-a-half years.

Singapore's economy is officially expected to expand 8.0-9.0 percent this year after growing by just 1.1 percent in 2003 due to the fallout from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome regional health crisis.

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