Upgrade capabilities and build up complementary strengths of our workforce
To enable a strong Singaporean core, we must equip the local workforce with relevant skill sets and provide them with fair employment opportunities. We will also support businesses in their transformation for the future of work.
As an open and connected international hub, our priority is to ensure that businesses have access to high-quality manpower – both local and foreign – to grow and create good jobs for our people.
We update our work pass policies regularly to ensure that companies can access a diverse pool of complementary talents while strengthening our Singaporean core.
To support local hiring, we will extend the qualifying window for the Jobs Growth Incentive to September 2022. This will enable eligible employers to hire mature workers who have not been in work for at least 6 months, persons with disabilities, and ex-offenders.
We will make company attachments under the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme permanent for mature jobseekers.
There will also be a permanent SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centre in every town.
We are making policy changes to strengthen the complementarity of our foreign workforce.
Benchmark Employment Pass quality and introduce COMPASSShow
We will aim to ensure that Employment Pass (EP) holders are comparable in quality to the top one-third of our local PMETs.
- From 1 September 2022, we will increase the EP minimum qualifying salary to $5,000 for the general economy, and $5,500 for the Financial Services sector.
- The qualifying salary for older candidates will be increased in tandem
We will introduce a new points-based Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS) for EP applications. COMPASS will:
- Holistically evaluate the complementarity of candidates based on individual and firm-related attributes.
- Enable companies to select complementary professionals, while improving workforce diversity and building a strong Singaporean core.
- Provide businesses with greater clarity and certainty for manpower planning, due to its transparency of assessment.
Applications must meet both the EP qualifying salary and earn sufficient points under COMPASS to qualify for an EP.
We aim to uplift the quality of S Pass holders to the top one-third of our local Associate Professionals and Technicians (APT) workforce. We will raise S Pass qualifying salaries and levies in three steps to achieve this.
- From 1 September 2022, we will raise the S Pass minimum qualifying salary to $3,000 for the general economy, and $3,500 for the Financial Services sector (first step). The qualifying salary for older candidates will be increased in tandem.
- The second and third steps in 2023 and 2025 respectively will depend on prevailing local APT wages at the time.
- We will also increase the S Pass Tier 1 levy from $330 to $650 over three steps (first step to $450)
We will be making foreign workforce policy changes for the Construction and Process sectors from 1 January 2024:
- Reduce the Dependency Ratio Ceiling from 1:7 (87.5%) to 1:5 (83.3%)
- Phase out of Man-Year Entitlement framework
- Revise levy structure for Work Permit holders
Read more about the industry transformation.
With the moves to increase the benchmark for S Pass quality, we will introduce a Non-Traditional Sources (NTS) Occupation List. This will allow firms in the Services and Manufacturing sectors to hire their NTS S Pass holders in specific rank-and-file roles on Work Permits with effect from 1 September 2023.
MOM is also supporting the Ministry of Trade and Industry and other economic agencies to launch the Manpower for Strategic Economic Priorities (M-SEP) scheme. M-SEP will provide time-bound foreign manpower flexibilities for firms that contribute to Singapore’s strategic economic priorities and develop our local workforce. More details will be provided in due course.
Last updated: 14 March 2024