SINGAPORE, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Ministry of Manpower said on Friday that the country's annual average unemployment rate reached 2.2 percent last year, compared with 2.1 percent in 2016.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for residents grew from 3 percent to 3.1 percent, and that for citizens grew from 3.1 percent to 3.3 percent, according to the advance release of the Labour Market Report for 2017 from the ministry.

However, as at the end of 2017, the unemployment rate last December was 2.1 percent, 0.1 percentage points lower than a year ago for overall. That for residents went down 0.3 percentage point to 2.9 percent, and that for citizens went down 0.5 percentage point to 3 percent.

The preliminary data from the release showed Singapore's total employment was estimated to have declined by 10,700 or 0.3 percent, the first decrease since 2003. This was due to a contraction in foreign employment, even though local employment continued to grow by an estimated 21,300 or 0.9 percent in the year, nearly double the growth in 2016.

Besides, it also showed that the nominal median monthly income from work of Singapore's full-time employed citizens increased by 5.9 percent last June, or 5.3 percent in real terms, higher than the growth of 0.7 percent for nominal income and 1.3 percent for real income in June 2016.

The ministry attributed last year's improvement in local employment and median income of citizens to the pick-up in economic growth and continued upgrading of the workforce.

"Local employment is expected to continue to grow in 2018, albeit some unevenness across sectors," said the ministry.

The preliminary data also showed that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined from 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017, while that rate for residents declined from 3.1 percent to 2.9 percent, and rate for citizens declined from 3.2 percent to 3 percent.