Disclaimer: Until in any other case acknowledged, any opinions expressed beneath belong solely to the creator. Information sourced from the most recent labour market report launched by the Ministry of Manpower, supplemented with figures from earlier releases the place essential.
Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has simply launched its newest Labour Market Report for Q1 of 2025, and it’s a little bit of a blended bag of indicators—though, as ever for Singapore, they’re all actually reasonably good in comparison with different international locations.
That mentioned, on the one hand, the general employment elevated by 2,400 folks within the final quarter, and there are over 134,000 vacancies in all the economic system. On the opposite, each the resident and citizen unemployment figures nudged up a bit to 2.9% and three.1% respectively, displaying {that a} bigger proportion of locals are searching for a job.
In complete, there are 81,800 unemployed folks in Singapore, together with 62,600 residents. That mentioned, now we have to do not forget that it doesn’t imply that each one of those individuals are struggling to discover a job, however reasonably that so many are merely searching for one.
In spite of everything, there’s one thing referred to as pure unemployment, which is taken into account by economists to be someplace round 2%, and it displays the variety of staff in transition from one job to a different.
Lengthy-term unemployment charge amongst residents is simply 0.9%, though it too elevated in Q1 of 2025:
Hundreds of vacancies, however listed here are those that pay
The full estimated variety of vacancies in Singapore’s economic system is round 134,000, or 1.64 jobs for each unemployed individual.
Nevertheless, MOM doesn’t acquire particular information on all of them, simply those reported by personal firms using at the least 25 folks, and the general public sector. The variety of openings amongst them hit 82,200 in Q1, growing by 6,400 from the final quarter of 2024.
In different phrases, there are nonetheless loads of jobs in bigger firms. What’s extra is that greater than half of them—45,300 to be actual—are within the PMET (Professionals, Managers, Executives & Technicians) class.
Crucially, these figures confer with the variety of unfilled posts on the finish of the quarter for which an organization is actively recruiting staff from the surface. They exclude any inner hiring or positions stuffed however not but energetic.
As we all know from MOM’s annual launch, the median wage (inclusive of employer CPF) within the Singapore economic system reached S$5,500 final yr. Nevertheless, the figures are vastly completely different between the PMET and non-PMET classes.
Whereas staff in clerical jobs, manufacturing or upkeep earn a median of simply S$3,000, these in PMET positions herald over S$7,300 every month, with males making S$7,800, or $1,000 greater than women.
Median salaries (together with employer CPF) in 2024:
| Complete | Male | Feminine | |
| Common for all | S$5,500 | S$5,850 | S$5,265 |
| PMETs | S$7,308 | S$7,800 | S$6,825 |
| Non-PMETs | S$3,000 | S$3,000 | S$3,015 |
The place are they?
Whereas MOM doesn’t listing all openings, after all—there are job boards and recruitment businesses for that—nevertheless it does present a breakdown by trade.
Please be aware, these are Q1 figures for PMET positions solely, as reported by the Ministry of Manpower on Friday, June 27:
| Professions / Industries | PMET Vacancies as of Q1 of 2025 |
| TOTAL | 45,300 |
| MANUFACTURING | 4,300 |
| Digital, Laptop & Optical Merchandise | 1,300 |
| Fabricated Steel Merchandise, Equipment & Gear | 900 |
| Petroleum, Chemical & Pharmaceutical Merchandise | 600 |
| Transport Gear | 500 |
| Meals, Drinks & Tobacco | 400 |
| Different Manufacturing Industries | 400 |
| Paper/Rubber/Plastic Merchandise & Printing | 100 |
| CONSTRUCTION | 3,400 |
| SERVICES | 37,000 |
| Neighborhood, Social and Private Providers | 13,900 |
| Public Administration & Schooling | 8,700 |
| Well being & Social Providers | 4,000 |
| Different Neighborhood, Social & Private Providers | 700 |
| Arts, Leisure & Recreation | 400 |
| Info and Communications | 5,800 |
| IT & Different Info Providers | 5,100 |
| Telecommunications, Broadcasting & Publishing | 700 |
| Monetary and Insurance coverage Providers | 5,800 |
| Monetary Providers | 5,300 |
| Insurance coverage Providers | 500 |
| Skilled Providers | 4,700 |
| Authorized, Accounting & Administration Providers | 2,700 |
| Architectural & Engineering Providers | 1,000 |
| Different Skilled Providers | 900 |
| Wholesale and Retail Commerce | 2,800 |
| Wholesale Commerce | 2,200 |
| Retail Commerce | 700 |
| Lodging and Meals Providers | 1,400 |
| Meals & Beverage Providers | 1,000 |
| Lodging | 400 |
| Transportation and Storage | 1,300 |
| Water Transport & Supporting Providers | 500 |
| Air Transport & Supporting Providers | 400 |
| Different Transport & Storage Providers | 300 |
| Land Transport & Supporting Providers | 200 |
| Administrative and Help Providers | 800 |
| Different Administrative & Help Providers | 700 |
| Cleansing & Landscaping | 100 |
| Actual Property Providers | 600 |
| Different | 500 |
The federal government stays one of the vital hungry employers, with 8,700 openings, with an extra 4,000 within the healthcare sector. IT and finance are excessive on the listing as nicely, with shut to six,000 vacancies every, adopted by skilled and authorized companies, in addition to different classes.
Relying in your training, background and expertise, now you can gauge your probabilities and potential competitors in your trade, earlier than diving into particular affords accessible on recruitment web sites or within the press. Completely happy looking!
- Learn different job-related articles we’ve written right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Jason Goh / Pixabay
