Overview

Preliminary data from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) point to a resilient labour market in 2Q 2025, supported by continued economic growth1. Total employment2 rose, with stronger growth among both residents and non-residents, while unemployment rates and retrenchments remained stable. Resident employment increased in Financial Services and Health & Social Services. However, signs of softening continued to emerge in some outward-oriented sectors, with resident employment continuing to see declines in Professional Services and Information & Communications. Looking ahead, employment is expected to continue to grow, though at a more moderate pace than in 2024. This reflects global economic headwinds and cautious hiring sentiments as well as the already high resident labour force participation rate. 

Main Findings3

Total employment growth picked up momentum, but remained slower than 2Q 2024

2. Total employment rose by 8,400 in 2Q 2025 — higher than in 1Q 2025 (2,300) and 4Q 2024 (7,700), though lower than in 2Q 2024 (11,300). This reflects larger gains in both resident and non-resident employment compared to the previous quarter.
3. Resident employment continued to expand in sectors such as Financial Services and Health & Social Services, while some outward-oriented sectors such as Professional Services and Information & Communications registered continued declines.

4. Growth in non-resident employment was driven entirely by Work Permit Holders, particularly in the Construction sector.

Unemployment rates remained broadly stable

5. Unemployment rates have seen short-term fluctuations but remained within the non-recessionary range4. After dipping slightly in April and May, both resident and citizen unemployment rates rose slightly in June 2025 (resident: 2.9%, citizen: 3.0%), returning to levels seen in March 2025. 

The number and incidence of retrenchments remained steady and low

6. Retrenchments remained stable at 3,500 in 2Q 2025 (1Q 2025: 3,590), with similar or lower levels across most sectors. The incidence of retrenchment also remained low at 1.4 retrenched per 1,000 employees. Business reorganisation or restructuring continued to be the top reason cited for retrenchments.

Labour Market Outlook

7. Global economic uncertainty is expected to persist in the months ahead and may weigh on hiring and wage growth, particularly in outward-oriented sectors. Business sentiments remained relatively stable and cautious, with hiring and wage expectations for 3Q 2025 dipping slightly from the previous quarter. MOM’s business expectations polls conducted between April to June 2025 showed that the proportion of firms expecting to hire declined slightly from 44.0% in 2Q 2025 to 43.7% in 3Q 20255. The proportion of firms which expect to raise wages also declined, from 24.4% to 22.4%. Declines in wage expectations were observed in outward-oriented sectors such as Financial & Insurance Services, Professional Services, and Transportation & Storage.

Conclusion

8. MOM encourages employers and workers to tap on the wide suite of initiatives and programmes to press on with transformation and upskilling, adapt to changes, and seize new opportunities:

(a) As announced at Budget 2025, the Government will be introducing the SkillsFuture Workforce Development Grant (WDG) as part of the Enterprise Workforce Transformation Package. This will bring together workforce transformation schemes administered by Workforce Singapore (WSG) and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), and simplify the application process. More details will be released in due course. In the meantime, employers can also tap on our existing schemes to reskill and upskill their workers, such as the Career Conversion Programmes and Mid-Career Pathways Programme. Employers can also benefit from the Support for Job Redesign under the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG-JR) to redesign jobs in anticipation of change and make them more productive and attractive to jobseekers. The SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit will also be redesigned in 2026 along with a fresh $10,000 of credits to use on workforce transformation programmes. Employers who have not tapped on their existing credits can do so to offset out-of-pocket costs for these programmes. 

(b) Through Career Health SG, the Government will empower Singaporeans to develop resilient and fulfilling careers, and to achieve their career aspirations through training, on-the-job learning and intentional career moves. MOM has recently launched a one-stop portal, the Career Health SG website (www.careerhealth.sg), to bring together a suite of tools and resources by SSG and WSG which Singaporeans can tap on in their career health journey. The portal also contains information on the support employers can access to strengthen the career health of their workers and develop a more resilient workforce.

(c) The SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support scheme was launched earlier this year. This scheme will provide temporary financial support of up to $6,000 over six months to involuntarily unemployed individuals, as they look for their next job.

9. The Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce (SERT) recently announced two measures to help workers to navigate the current uncertainty. SERT is also standing by to provide more support should the economic situation call for it. The two measures announced are:

(a) To expand access to career guidance services to help workers build their career health, by further defraying out-of-pocket fees and scaling up its provision.

(b) To enhance funding support for HR certification from the Institute of HR Professionals to help businesses manage their workforce and strengthen the HR profession.

10. The Labour Market Report Second Quarter 2025, to be released in mid-September 2025, will provide a comprehensive assessment and more details of the labour market situation in 2Q 2025. This will include resident and non-resident employment breakdowns, sectoral data, number of job vacancies, labour turnover, and re-entry rates among retrenched residents.

For More Information

11. The full report is available online on MOM’s Research and Statistics Department website at stats.mom.gov.sg.

12. For data requests and queries pertaining to the report, please reach out to MOM’s Research and Statistics Department at mom_rsd@mom.gov.sg.

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