However, the propensity of people to move interstate, or within their state, has declined over the period that the dispersion in unemployment rates has declined (Graph 8). For the two decades to the mid 2000s, around 2 per cent of us moved states each year. Over recent times that share has fallen to 1½ per cent.
The difference, as I said, is not only in the smile, or absence of it, but in an unlimited optimism, social energy and self-confidence that Singaporeans display!