SINGAPORE: Singapore’s labour demand slowed in the first quarter of 2025, amid economic uncertainty and escalating global trade conflicts, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Monday (Apr 28).
While the labour market has continued to expand, employment growth slowed in the first quarter compared to previous quarters, and the unemployment rate edged up slightly, MOM said in an advance release of its quarterly labour force report.
The moderation in labour demand was most evident in certain outward-oriented sectors, such as professional services, which recorded declines in resident employment, MOM said.
Retrenchments, however, declined in the first quarter compared to the previous one, the ministry added.
Earlier this month, Singapore downgraded its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for 2025 to 0 per cent to 2 per cent, against the backdrop of slowing global trade and heightened economic uncertainty following US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
EMPLOYMENT GROWTH
Total employment, excluding migrant domestic workers, grew by 2,300 in Q1 2025. This was lower than the growth of 3,200 observed in the same period last year, and was also below the seasonal growth of 7,700 seen in the last quarter of 2024.
“This reflects smaller increases in both resident and non-resident employment, compared to Q4 2024,” said MOM.
Resident employment continued to rise in health and social services as well as financial services. However, resident employment contracted for outward-oriented sectors such as professional services, manufacturing, and information and communications.
Non-resident employment increased and was driven entirely by work permit holders in lower-skilled jobs, mainly in administrative and support services and community, social and personal services.
Unemployment rates also rose slightly in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the last quarter of 2024, with the resident unemployment rate increasing from 2.8 per cent in December 2024 to 2.9 per cent between January and March this year.
While the citizen unemployment rate held steady at 3.1 per cent in March compared to February, it was higher than the 2.9 per cent recorded in December 2024.
Despite this, the unemployment rates “remained within the non-recessionary range”, said MOM.
