Singapore’s labour market continued to expand in 2025 albeit a slowdown in the 4Q last year.
“Total employment growth was stronger than in 2024, and unemployment and retrenchments remained low and stable,” according to the labor market advance released on Thursday (Jan. 29) by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).
For the full year of 2025, total employment grew by 28.8% to 57,300, from 44,500 in 2024.
Resident employment growth was mainly in the financial services as well as health & social services while for non-residents, the growth in the job market was driven by the construction sector.
In 4Q 2025, the total employment slowed down to 19,600, from 25,100 in the previous quarter, but was higher than the growth of 10,400 in the 2Q and 2,300 in the 1Q respectively.
The overall unemployment rate for 2025 remained low at 2%. The unemployment rate for citizens was higher at 3% than the resident jobless rate of 2.8%.
While employment had gone up, the incidence of retrenchment for 2025 also increased by 5.1% to 6.2 retrenched per 1,000 employees (14,400), from 5.9 retrenched per 1,000 employees (13,020) in 2024.
11,000 were retrenched in the services sector mainly in the transportation & storage as well as financial services. 2,610 lost their jobs in the manufacturing sector while 540 layoffs were from the construction sector.
“The increase largely reflects higher retrenchments earlier in the first three quarters of 2025 compared to the preceding year,” according to the release.
The retrenchments were due to “business reorganisation or restructuring.”
For 4Q 2025, the number of workers retrenched was lower at 1.5 retrenched per 1,000 employees (3,600) as compared with 1.6 per 1,000 employees (3,670) in 3Q 2025.
Employment Outlook
“Looking ahead to 1Q 2026, business expectations suggest that the labour market will continue to expand, albeit amidst increased hiring caution,” according to the release.
It noted that the share of firms expecting to hire in the next three months edged down slightly to 43.3% in December 2025, from 44.1% in September 2025.
More workers are expected to be laid off.
“While the share of firms expecting to retrench workers also increased from 2.3% to 4.3% over the same period, it remains low, suggesting selective workforce adjustments rather than broad-based job cuts,” the release stated.
Wages are expected to increase.
It noted that “a larger share of firms expects to raise wages over the same period, rising from 19.3% to 26.4%, pointing to improving business outcomes and continued competition for labour in certain areas.”
