By Xinghui Kok
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -&nbsp;Singapore's&nbsp;population&nbsp;grew&nbsp;5%&nbsp;in a year as&nbsp;foreign&nbsp;workers&nbsp;returned to the city-state following the&nbsp;pandemic, data released on Friday showed.
There were 5.9 million people in Singapore as of June, up from 5.6 million in June last year. Of these, 61% were Singaporeans, 9% were permanent residents and 30% were&nbsp;foreigners working or studying in the country.
The bulk of the&nbsp;population&nbsp;increase came from&nbsp;foreign&nbsp;employment, with 162,000&nbsp;foreign&nbsp;workers&nbsp;coming to Singapore from June 2022 to June this year.
The National&nbsp;Population&nbsp;and Talent Division said the largest increase came from&nbsp;workers&nbsp;in the construction, marine shipyard and process sectors as contractors hired more&nbsp;workers&nbsp;for projects that were delayed by the&nbsp;pandemic.
The labour market has remained tight since the country dropped&nbsp;pandemic&nbsp;restrictions last April, with total employment at 3.8% above its pre-pandemic&nbsp;level in Q1 this year.
The economy grew 3.6% in 2022.
The government, however, expects growth to be sluggish this year. The ministry in August narrowed its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 0.5%&nbsp;to 1.5%&nbsp;this year from 0.5%&nbsp;to 2.5%&nbsp;previously.
In 2020,&nbsp;Singapore's&nbsp;population&nbsp;shrank by 2%. It was the first time the&nbsp;population&nbsp;had fallen since the 1970s as 47,000&nbsp;foreigners left amid strict Covid-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions.
The&nbsp;population&nbsp;shrank further in 2021 as 147,000&nbsp;foreign&nbsp;workers&nbsp;left Singapore, causing the&nbsp;population&nbsp;to drop to 5.45 million.
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(Reporting by Xinghui Kok; editing by Christina Fincher)

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Singapore's population grows 5% as foreign workers return post-pandemic