Singapore added 55K jobs in 2025, but nearly 80% of those went to non-residents

Singapore’s labour market has continued to expand, but locals aren’t driving most of the growth

In Mar, Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released its quarterly Labour Market report, highlighting job trends in the city-state, including employment growth and workforce composition.

Since the fourth quarter of 2021, the labour market has continued to expand, and for the full year of 2025, total employment grew by 55,500, up from 44,500 in 2024.

However, of these 55,500 jobs, 79% (or 43,900) went to non-residents, while just 11,600 were taken up by residents (citizens and permanent residents).

This works out to roughly a four-to-one ratio—meaning that for every new job secured by a resident last year, about four went to a foreign worker.

Where the jobs went

A closer look at the data reveals that resident job growth is not only smaller in scale, but also more narrowly concentrated.

In 2025, most gains among residents were clustered in higher-skilled sectors such as financial services and health and social services.

Non-resident employment, on the other hand, was driven largely by sectors with more labour-intensive demands. Construction stood out as a key industry, continuing its reliance on foreign manpower to support infrastructure and building projects.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, both resident and non-resident employment rose in administrative & support services and retail trade, largely driven by seasonal hiring for events and the year-end holiday period.

Not a one-off trend

2025 was not an outlier. This year’s figures are simply the latest in a pattern that has played out consistently over the past few years.

In each of the past three years, non-resident employment growth has significantly outpaced resident growth. In 2023, a strong year for total employment growth, residents accounted for less than 6% of all new jobs.

Even in 2025, a year that saw a notable increase in resident employment, non-residents still accounted for close to four in five of all new jobs created.

The reasons for this shift are partly structural, and the Ministry of Manpower has been fairly direct about why.

In its Q4 2025 Labour Market Report, MOM noted that Singapore’s resident labour force participation rate is already high, leaving limited scope for further expansion of the local workforce.

For those aged 25 to 64, the figure stands at 85.9%, one of the highest in the world. Most people who can work and want to work are already in the workforce—there simply are not many residents left on the sidelines to bring in, which naturally limits how much further resident employment can expand.

At the same time, businesses continue to face manpower needs, whether for growth, replacement, or sector-specific demands, that cannot be fully met by the resident pool alone. Non-resident workers help fill these gaps, particularly in industries that struggle to attract or retain local workers.

Looking ahead, the Ministry of Manpower expects these trends to persist.

For 2026, resident employment is projected to grow at a similar or slightly slower pace than in 2025.

Non-resident employment, on the other hand, is expected to continue expanding alongside economic demand, particularly in sectors such as construction and other manpower-intensive industries, where hiring has remained strong in recent years.

• Read other articles we’ve written on job trends here.

Also Read: LinkedIn: These are the 15 best employers in Singapore to grow your career in 2026

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