More than 2.99 million of Singapore's 4.99 million population were working by the end of last year. That's more than ever in the last decade, as this chart shows.

The number of jobs actually went up despite the recession. So did unemployment — marginally.

But the good news is overall unemployment fell from 3.4% to 2.1% in the fourth quarter, according to preliminary estimates by the Ministry of Manpower. Unemployment among Singapore residents — citizens and permanent residents — fell from 5% to 3% during the same period.

That can be no consolation for the 87,000 residents who found themselves jobless last year, up from 62,900 in 2008. Overall unemployment rose to 3% last year from 2.2% the year before and, for Singapore residents, from 3.2% to 4.3%.

But as the Manpower Ministry press release says:

Local employment grew by 43,000 in 2009. In contrast, foreign employment fell by 4,200 compared to a record increase of 156,900 in 2008. As at December 2009, there were 1.05 million foreigners forming 35.2% of the 2.99 million persons employed in Singapore. The majority comprising 64.8% or 1.94 million persons employed were locals.

So the number of locals employed has gone up from 1.9 million in 2008. The number of foreigners working has dipped from 1.057 million to 1.053 million. There were just under a million foreigners working in Singapore in 2007 and the figure in 2006 was 756,000.

All the figures in these charts are based on data from the Statistics Department of Singapore and the Ministry of Manpower. The employment figures for 2005 to 2009 are taken from the preliminary estimates given by the ministry at the beginning of the year and for 2004 to 2001 from the ministry's mid-year estimates presented on this page.