S’pore retrenchments hit highest level since 2020 as vacancies fall

Laid off workers also took longer to find jobs

Job vacancies in Singapore kept falling in the second quarter of 2026, even as retrenchments climbed to their highest level since the pandemic.

About two in every 1,000 employees were retrenched in the second quarter, with the number of laid-off workers rising to 4,620, the highest since the fourth quarter of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was under way.

This is up from 3,830 retrenchments, or about 1.6 retrenched workers for every 1,000 employees, in the first quarter.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM), in its labour report released on Sep 21, said the labour market is showing signs of softening. The rise in retrenchments was driven by restructuring among businesses in outward-oriented sectors such as manufacturing, information and communications, and financial services.

He added that the layoffs are not broad-based and are mostly concentrated in outward-oriented sectors.

A slower path back to work

Retrenched workers were also taking longer to find jobs: 54.9% found new employment within six months in the second quarter, down from 60.7% in the first. Even so, close to 70% found work within a year.

Acting Minister for Manpower Jasmin Lau said some workers were finding that the transition to their next role was taking slightly longer, which she called “a concern for some Singaporeans.”

Speaking on the sidelines of a visit to technology company Acronis, she said job opportunities remained, but moving between jobs could be challenging. She added that the Government will help workers learn, adapt and prepare for new roles through career conversion programmes.

“Instead of learning a new skill and then hoping to find a job that uses it, workers train for actual roles that companies need,” she said.

Acronis, has supported more than 50 of its employees since 2024 through career conversion programmes, helping them build new skills in cybersecurity, software development and artificial intelligence.

Lau said: “This is the shift I hope we can all make together, learning new skills not just to protect what we have, but to open up more possibilities for what comes next.”

Fewer non-entry-level PMET openings

At the same time, job vacancies fell to 68,600 in Jun from 73,300 in Mar, the MOM report said.

The drop mainly reflected fewer openings for professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) in sectors such as financial services and information and communications.

Entry-level PMET vacancies, however, remained “broadly stable and sizeable”, making up 45.3% of all job openings in June.

Despite the overall decline, there were still more vacancies than unemployed people, at 1.48 vacancies per unemployed person as at Jun.

In general, Singapore’s labour market expanded in the second quarter, MOM said.

Total employment rose by 11,400, the 19th consecutive quarter of growth and up from the 9,400 jobs added in the first quarter.

A “positive but cautious” outlook

Resident employment growth, however, slowed from the previous quarter.

The growth came mainly from domestic-oriented sectors such as transportation and storage, public administration and education, and health and social services, although some outward-oriented sectors, including professional services, financial services, and information and communications, also expanded.

On the other hand, non-resident employment growth was driven by work permit holders in construction and manufacturing.

Unemployment rates remained “low and stable” in Jun, at 1.9% overall and 2.9% for residents, though the resident long-term unemployment rate edged up to 1% from 0.9% in Mar.

MOM said the labour market remained resilient overall, but conditions became less favourable for some resident workers as employment growth moderated, retrenchments increased and six-month re-entry outcomes weakened.

Looking ahead, MOM described the labour market outlook as “positive but cautious”, based on its business expectation polls in July.

Hiring expectations improved across more sectors, with 48.7% of companies intending to hire in the next three months, up from 43.9% in June.

The share of companies intending to raise wages, however, fell to 27.9% in July from 29.3% in June.

“Despite the improvement, both hiring and wage expectations remained below their Feb levels,” MOM added.

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.

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