Singapore's labor market remained tight in the first quarter of this year, according to a Ministry of Manpower report released on Friday.

Seasonally adjusted job vacancies rose by 17 percent over the quarter, reversing the 7 percent decline in December last year.

There were 2,120 workers made redundant, down from the previous quarter.

Employment in the first three months grew by 28,900, down from 44,000 in the last quarter of 2012 but up from 27,200 the year before.

As reported earlier, unemployment edged up to 1.9 percent in March from 1.8 percent in December, but it is still at a level close to full employment. Resident unemployment, which excludes foreign workers, rose to 2.9 percent from 2.7 percent previously.

Long-term unemployment improved slightly. In March this year, 0. 6 percent of the resident labor force had been unemployed for at least 25 weeks, down from 0.7 percent a year ago.