MOM just released its latest advanced quarterly labour report & employers are showing signs of caution

Singapore’s labour market continued to expand in Q1 2026, but employers are showing early signs of caution as they tighten hiring plans, according to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM)’s latest advance quarterly labour market report released today (Apr 30).

The report, based on preliminary data, found that the city-state added 5,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2026, extending an 18-quarter growth streak.

While this was higher than the 2,300 jobs added in Q1 2025, it marked a sharp slowdown from the 17,700 jobs recorded in Q4 2025.

MOM attributed the softer pace largely to seasonal factors and a high base in the previous quarter, rather than a broad-based weakening in labour demand. It noted, for instance, that construction activity typically slows during the Chinese New Year period.

At the same time, the share of firms planning to hire in the next three months fell from 54.6% in Feb to 44.6% in Mar. The proportion of firms expecting to raise salaries in the next three months also dropped from 39.3% to 25.4% over the same period.

Earlier this month, the Monetary Authority of Singapore warned that the business outlook had softened and employment growth would likely ease from 2025’s gains because of the Middle East conflict.

MOM noted that hiring sentiment has yet to recover to Feb levels before the conflict began, despite early signs of stabilisation in April.

“This suggests a more measured pace of hiring and emerging caution among firms, with potential softening if external conditions weaken,” said MOM.

Employment growth among Singaporeans and permanent residents for Q1 2026 was concentrated in sectors such as transportation and storage, and administrative and support services, while non-resident employment growth continued to be driven by the construction sector.

Meanwhile, unemployment rates remained low and broadly stable. The overall rate edged up to 2.1% in Ma, from 2% in Dec 2025. Among citizens, the rate rose to 3.1% from 3% in the previous quarter.

Some 3,700 workers were retrenched in Q1 2026, up from 3,590 a year ago, and 3,690 in the last quarter of 2025. For every 1,000 employees, 1.5 people were retrenched in the Jan to Mar period, the same as the last quarter.

“Retrenchments were stable or declined across most sectors, with a majority occurring due to business reorganisation or restructuring,” said MOM.

The full labour market report for Q1 2026 will be released by MOM in mid-Jun.

Job market forecast

Looking ahead to Q2 2026, the labour market is expected to remain tight and continue to expand, said MOM.

However, geopolitical tensions and increased economic uncertainty are also expected to make businesses cautious about hiring and wages.

Commenting on MOM’s report, Callam Pickering, senior economist at Indeed, said: “An uncertain business environment, both in Singapore and globally, will make it more difficult for Singapore businesses to plan ahead and understand their staffing needs.”

Pickering also noted that labour demand also shows signs of deterioration, with job postings on Indeed down 2.8% in Mar, compared to the end of last year, continuing a three-year downward trend in hiring demand.

Nonetheless, he pointed out that the job market “continues to be healthy,” with unemployment and retrenchment figures still low. “We expect the job market to weaken this year, but strong fundamentals will help Singapore weather the storm,” Pickering reflected.

• Read more articles we’ve written on Singapore’s job trends here.

The MacBook Neo stopped me in my tracks, not because it’s a beautiful piece of tech that appeals to the enthusiast inside me. It’s the overall pitch that Apple puts on the table — aluminum build, efficient silicon, and great battery life — all at an implausible price tag of $599. I wanted to experience it, and I almost bought it a couple of weeks ago. 

But I didn’t. And it wasn’t because Neo is a bad machine. I got to experience the device for a couple of days (thanks to my friend who splurged his money on it), and the more I dug into what Apple had left out to hit the astonishingly low price, the more I felt like pushing my purchase until the Neo gets better. 

5 things I want the next MacBook Neo to fix

Because here’s the thing: I get most of the trade-offs. What I don’t understand, however, is why some of the cuts were made in the first place, as they’re more about snatching away the iconic MacBook experience than saving costs for the company. So, dear Apple, fix these five things on the next MacBook Neo, and I’ll have my wallet out before you guys start accepting pre-orders. 

A19 Pro could help push the performance ceiling

For a first-generation device, the MacBook Neo does really well with Apple’s A18 Pro chip (borrowed from the iPhone 16 Pro, with one less GPU core). I was surprised at how well it handles everyday tasks like browsing, emailing, and, most importantly, multitasking with a dozen different Chrome tabs. 

But here’s why I pumped the brakes. The A18 Pro holds its own at day-to-day tasks, but due to the lack of additional cores compared to the M-series, it runs behind in intense workflows like photo editing, graphic designing, or even coding.

This is where a better, more powerful chip could help the Neo up its game, not just for immediate gains, but to keep the Neo relevant for the next four or five years, especially as AI-driven tasks would require even more computational power. 

The good news? Apple is already working on putting the A19 Pro (from the iPhone 17 Pro) inside the next iteration, and I’ll take that all day. The chip brings meaningful upgrades across the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine, and should enhance the overall Neo experience.

It’s Apple’s optimization that’s doing the heavy lifting here, not 8GB of RAM

I’ll give credit where it’s due. It isn’t just the 8GB of physical RAM on the MacBook Neo doing the heavy lifting. It’s Apple’s iron grip over hardware and software optimization (including temporary swap-in memory) that makes browsing, streaming, and general multitasking feel like a breeze on the Neo.

However, the moment I pushed it by running multiple apps simultaneously, like Chrome (with over two dozen active tabs) with Apple Music, and added FaceTime to this combination, the memory ceiling became apparent. Unlike a Windows laptop, where upgrading RAM is an option, with MacBooks, what you buy is what you live with.

In my opinion, the device is aimed squarely at first-time laptop buyers: students, new professionals, and people looking for a secondary on-the-go device, and it serves them quite well. But with the unavoidable memory slowdown, 8GB of RAM isn’t going to cut the mustard forever.

For me, more RAM doesn’t just solve the immediate multitasking bottleneck; it solves the longevity problem, too. Fortunately, the A19 Pro chip is rumored to bring 12GB of unified memory as a standard on the next Neo, and that should’ve been the baseline from day one.

I type in the dark every single day

While the other things are not immediately apparent, this one baffled me right when I unfolded the thing for the first time. The Neo skips the backlit keyboard, a feature so standard in 2026 that even budget Windows laptops don’t think twice about it.

Apple’s workaround is the color-matched keyboard with lighter keys across all four finishes, and sure, the display’s glow does a decent job of illuminating the keys. However, it’s no workaround for a good old backlit keyboard, which even my M1 MacBook Air has, not only because it looks cool at night, but because it makes finding the function keys a whole lot easier. 

I can’t stress enough how much a backlit keyboard would help the Neo’s target audience: students working on assignments late at night, frequent travelers working on the go, in dimly lit plane seats or train compartments, or people like me, who’d rather work outside at night than be cooped up indoors. 

The trackpad doesn’t feel like it’s on a MacBook

One of the most distinctive aspects of MacBooks, a hallmark of every MacBook for nearly a decade, is the haptic trackpad. It was one of the features that wowed me before my first-ever MacBook purchase, and calling it anything but iconic would be a mistake. And the Neo, somehow, doesn’t have it. 

Instead, it has a mechanical trackpad that clicks like a budget Windows laptop or Chromebook, and that’s exactly what I’ll never expect or accept, not from Apple. Don’t get me wrong, though. The Neo’s trackpad works just fine, but the moment you use it after using another MacBook, the difference is impossible to miss.

And while we’re at it, paywalling Touch ID on a higher storage tier is something that didn’t sit well with me either, but I’ll let it pass given that it isn’t something I use as often as the keyboard and the trackpad.

The USB 2 port doesn’t come in handy while transferring files

It could be while someone is trying to offload their iPhone’s data on the MacBook, or getting pictures or videos of a vacation via an external storage drive, that Neo users would notice how tremendously slow the USB 2 port on the device is (the one closer to the trackpad). 

And it adds up faster than anyone would think. Even a 20GB iPhone backup that takes minutes via a USB 3 connection will have you wait for about half an hour on USB 2. For people who are always working, trying to be productive around the clock, that feels like the deepest cut. 

I’m not asking for a Thunderbolt port, but both ports running at USB 3 speeds is, in my opinion, a reasonable ask in 2026. 

Bottom line

None of these things is a dealbreaker at $599, and not even a question at $499 with education pricing. To Apple’s credit, the Neo is one of the most impressive first-generation devices I’ve seen and used in a long time.

Clearly, it’s the years of experience in making MacBooks that help the company. What annoys me, however, is when the Neo starts feeling like it’s one-upping the competition rather than staying true to its Apple roots. 

The chipa nd RAM upgrades are already rumored, and I’m cautiously excited about them. But if anyone at Apple is reading this, please bring back the backlit keyboard, haptic trackpad, and bring both ports to the same USB 3 standard. Do that, and the next MacBook Neo will have something more than my attention — my money.

Amazon is giving product pages the podcast treatment, and it’s as useful as it sounds. This might sound like a neat new trick till you hear what some of these AI “hosts” are actually discussing.

The company recently expanded its “Hear the highlights” feature with a new interactive mode called “Join the chat.” This feature lets shoppers listen to AI-generated audio summaries about the products they are viewing, and even ask questions by text or voice while the audio is playing. It added a layer of interactivity, with these AI hosts being capable of pausing and answering in real time. But that’s where the handy idea ends, and the bizarre bit starts.

How the early examples are already strange

Amazon’s Hear the highlights creates short audio conversations about key product features, who a product might be good for, and what shoppers should know before buying. The feature basically pulls from product details, customer reviews, and other publicly available information.

In practice, a quick audio summary could help save time and cut through the mess of shopping pages. But the problem is that products do not always deserve a cheery mini-podcast.

Futurism highlighted examples originally surfaced by Business Insider’s Katie Notopoulos, including an AI-generated shopping discussion about adult diaper rash cream. In another example, the feature reportedly generated enthusiastic commentary for a fake dog poop product, praising details like its size and realism. At this point, it becomes an automated infomercial machine rather than a helpful shopping assistant.

Useful idea with an awkward execution

Amazon is trying to make the system more conversational. The company is already pushing AI deeper into its retail experience. Rufus is one such example, functioning as an AI shopping assistant that offers product summaries.

Asking whether a humidifier works with essential oils, or whether earbuds are good for calls, can be genuinely helpful. But this is unintentionally funny when it is applied across odd, intimate, or novelty products.

Officers from the Seoul police force pull up in a crowded alley, where the sound of feet echoing between the buildings is almost deafening, in their high-tech vehicle powered by the quiet electric power of its motors, before, like a jack-in-the-box, a panel at the top of the roof slides open and a sleek little drone rises up to scan the lay of the land from above. This is Kia’s latest project, and it was developed in close collaboration with the Korean National Police Agency, with experimental operations due to begin in only a month.

The PV5, a practical electric vehicle built to navigate busy delivery routes and complete tasks, served as the foundation. Kia built on the same sturdy base and electric power as before, but included all of the safety elements required by the police. The paint job is stylish black and white, with large blue and yellow markings that clearly indicate the van’s duty while parked at a scene. A big light bar runs along the top of the van, flashing as needed, and despite all of the extra equipment, the overall design remains clean and modern, with the standard bright LED lighting still in place.

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The game changer is the top section, which is an extended housing that remains hidden until the police need it. Then a panel slides back, a platform appears, and the drone, which is equipped with a thermal imaging camera and can zoom in 90 times, takes off, all while the officers remain in the vehicle. It’s a fairly slick piece of gear, and once it’s finished exploring the area, the drone flies back down to the roof and recharges directly from the van’s electrical system.

The van is equipped with three high-resolution cameras, providing officers with 360-degree surveillance. Even as the van is traveling through traffic, the cameras continue to film, and all of the footage is relayed to screens within the cargo area, allowing cops to view what’s going on from the comfort of their seats. To make things even better, the installed software does some really intelligent things, such as identifying persons in a crowd based on their clothing, detecting anyone with a weapon, and alerting anyone on the ground who may require medical assistance. Even growing smoke or sudden crowd pressure are detected, and the crew receives an instant alert.

A 71.2-kilowatt-hour battery powers the entire operation, along with a zippy electric motor producing 161 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. The standard driving range is roughly 350 km (217 mi), however, as expected, the top structure adds considerable wind resistance, reducing the total in police trim. Don’t worry, Kia left the battery and drivetrain alone, so the van retains superb efficiency and plenty of power.

The project’s true goal was to provide the police with the tools they needed to complete their duties without putting more officers in danger. The Korean National Police Agency sought to respond faster in congested urban areas and have a better understanding of what was going on without endangering more lives. This means it will be deployed as part of the Metropolitan Preventive Patrol Unit, where the crew will test it on real-world streets beginning in June.
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