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Labour Market Advance Release - First Quarter 2025

Overview 

1            Amid slowing economic growth1 and escalating global trade conflicts, MOM’s preliminary data showed signs of moderating labour demand. Although the labour market continued to expand in 1Q 2025, the pace of employment2 growth has slowed compared to previous quarters and unemployment rates have edged up slightly from December 2024. The moderation in labour demand was more evident in some outward-oriented sectors – the Professional Services, Manufacturing, and Information & Communications sectors saw declines in resident3 employment.

Main Findings4

Total employment continued to grow, though at a slower pace

2            Total employment grew by 2,300 in 1Q 2025, below the seasonal increase in 4Q 2024 (+7,700) and the change in 1Q 2024 (+3,200). This reflects smaller increases in both resident and non-resident employment, compared to 4Q 2024.

3            Resident employment continued to increase in Health & Social Services and Financial Services. However, resident employment contracted in some outward-oriented sectors such as Professional Services, Manufacturing, and Information & Communications.

4            Growth in non-resident employment was driven entirely by Work Permit Holders in lower-skilled jobs, mainly in Administrative & Support Services and Community, Social & Personal Services.

Unemployment rates rose slightly from December 2024

5            Unemployment rose slightly in 1Q 2025 compared to December 2024. The resident unemployment rate increased from 2.8% in December to 2.9% between January and March. While the citizen unemployment rate held steady at 3.1% in March compared to February, it was higher than the 2.9% recorded in December 2024. Unemployment rates also remained within the non-recessionary range5.

 

The number of retrenchments declined

6            The number of retrenchments fell to 3,300 in 1Q 2025, down from 3,680 in 4Q 2024. The incidence of retrenchment remained low at 1.3 retrenched per 1,000 employees in 1Q 2025, and had declined slightly from 1.5 in 4Q 2024. Retrenchments were stable or lower across most sectors, with business reorganisation or restructuring remaining the top reason for retrenchments in 1Q 2025. Recession or downturn in the industry accounted for only a small proportion of retrenchments.

Conclusion

7            The moderation of employment growth in 1Q 2025, particularly in some outward-oriented sectors, alongside a slight uptick in unemployment, mirrors the deterioration in Singapore’s economic outlook6. Business sentiments have turned more cautious. In December 2024, more employers indicated plans to hire and raise wages compared to September 2024. In March 2025, however, fewer employers expect to hire or raise wages in the next three months7. Whilst the labour market has continued to expand, MOM expects the labour market to soften going forward given greater uncertainties in external growth prospects.

8            The Government introduced measures in Budget 2025 to support employers and workers. 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 take charge of their careers and navigate changes in the economy and jobs. Workers can make use of the CareersFinder feature on 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 pivot during this period of uncertainty.

(c)The SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support scheme was launched earlier this month. 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 Government set up the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce on 16 April 2025, which will examine further measures to help businesses and workers navigate the immediate uncertainties and position Singapore for the new economic landscape.

10         The Labour Market Report First Quarter 2025, to be released in mid-June 2025, will provide a comprehensive assessment and more details of the labour market situation in 1Q 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 on the trends for total employment change, retrenchments, and unemployment rates, please refer to the Annex.

 

For More Information

11         The full report is available online on the Ministry of Manpower’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 the Ministry of Manpower’s Research and Statistics Department at mom_rsd@mom.gov.sg.

 

FOOTNOTE

  1. Based on MTI’s advance estimates, Singapore’s economy grew by 3.8% y-o-y in 1Q 2025, slower than the 5.0% growth in 4Q 2024.
  2. Employment figures cited in this press release exclude Migrant Domestic Workers.
  3. 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.
  4. 1Q 2025 data are preliminary.
  5. From 2015 to 2019, the range was – residents: 2.5% - 3.3%; citizens: 2.7% - 3.5%.
  6. MTI has downgraded Singapore’s GDP growth forecast for 2025 from “1.0% to 3.0%” to “0.0% to 2.0%”, as announced in the press statement on the advance GDP estimates for 1Q 2025 released on 14 April 2025.
  7. MOM’s forward-looking polls in December 2024 found that the proportion of companies expecting to hire more workers increased from 43% in September to 46% in December. Additionally, 32% of companies plan to raise wages – double the 16% in September. However, in March 2025, 41% and 22% of firms expected to hire more workers or raise wages in the next three months respectively, down from 46% and 32% in December 2024.