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Labour Market Advance Release - Third Quarter 2025

Overview

1. Preliminary data from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) point to stronger than anticipated labour market conditions in 3Q 2025, supported by continued economic growth1. Total employment2 rose at a faster pace than in the previous quarter, contrary to earlier expectations of a softer outcome, while unemployment rates and retrenchments remained low and stable. The proportion of firms looking to hire also increased modestly, indicating slightly firmer hiring sentiment. Looking ahead, employment growth is expected to remain positive but uneven across sectors, while wage growth is expected to moderate.

Main Findings3

Total employment growth strengthened, with increases from both residents and non-residents

2. Total employment grew significantly by 24,800 in 3Q 2025, higher than in 2Q 2025 (10,400) and 3Q 2024 (22,300). The increase was supported by employment growth in both resident and non-resident employment.

3. Resident employment growth was mixed across sectors. It remained concentrated in sectors such as Financial Services and Health & Social Services, but was subdued in outward-oriented sectors such as Information & Communications and Professional Services. In addition, Wholesale Trade saw a sharp decline in resident employment. Non-resident employment also contracted in these three outward-oriented sectors4. 

4. Non-resident employment growth was mainly in Work Permit Holders in the Construction and Manufacturing sectors, while it remained relatively muted in the other sectors.

Unemployment rates stayed low

5. Unemployment rates stayed low in September 2025 (overall 2.0%, resident 2.8%, citizen 3.0%), similar to the previous quarter. They also remained within the non-recessionary range. 

The number and incidence of retrenchments remained low and stable

6. 3,500 (or 1.4 retrenched per 1,000 employees) were retrenched in 3Q 2025 and this was comparable to the previous quarter (3,540 or 1.4 retrenched per 1,000 employees). Majority of the retrenchments continued to be due to business reorganisation or restructuring.

Labour Market Outlook

7. Looking ahead to 4Q 2025, the proportion of firms expecting to hire (44.1%) rose slightly, suggesting a modest improvement in hiring sentiment. However, expectations varied across sectors, with outward-oriented industries reporting weaker sentiment. The proportion of firms planning wage increases (19.3%) continued to edge down across most sectors, while some outward-oriented sectors may see a pickup in retrenchments.

8. These trends suggest that while overall employment growth is likely to be sustained, wage growth may moderate amid cost pressures, and resident employment growth may lag that of non-residents, given the already high resident labour force participation rate.

Conclusion

9. With global economic uncertainties and headwinds, employers and workers should take pre-emptive action to stay resilient and remain adaptable to new opportunities. The Government provides a suite of programmes to support employers and workers in investing and building up human capital:

a. For employers: Employers can 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 to improve productivity. The SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit will 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. For workers: Through Career Health SG, the Government will empower Singaporeans to take charge of their careers and access better job opportunities. Workers can make use of the CareersFinder feature on Workforce Singapore (WSG)’s MyCareersFuture job portal to explore career and training options. Singaporeans can also tap on career coaching and guidance services provided by WSG and NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute, and the wide range of SkillsFuture training programmes such as the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme. These can help workers improve their career resilience and prospects during this period of uncertainty.

c. For fresh graduates: The GRaduate Industry Traineeships (GRIT) will further support fresh graduates’ entry into the workforce and provide more reassurance to those having difficulties finding employment after graduation. Applications for GRIT have opened, and can be made through MyCareersFuture and Careers@Gov. The Government is also working with Institutes of Higher Learning to ramp up access to job opportunities for fresh graduates.

d. For the involuntarily unemployed: The SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support scheme launched earlier this year provides temporary financial support of up to $6,000 over six months to involuntarily unemployed individuals who are engaged in active job search.

10. The Labour Market Report Third Quarter 2025, to be released in mid-December 2025, will provide a comprehensive assessment and more details of the labour market situation in 3Q 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.
 

FOOTNOTE

  1. Based on MTI’s advance estimates for 3Q 2025, the Singapore economy expanded by 2.9% year-on-year in 3Q 2025, moderating from the 4.5% growth recorded in the previous quarter.
  2. Employment figures cited in this press release exclude Migrant Domestic Workers. As per MOM’s usual practice, we will not publish resident and non-resident quarterly employment change figures in the Labour Market Advance Release, since these numbers are only preliminary.
  3. 3Q 2025 data are preliminary.
  4. These refer to Information & Communications, Professional Services and Wholesale Trade.