Q2 2026 saw the highest quarterly retrenchment total since 2020. The raw number matters, but how quickly displaced residents find work and what they earn afterward give a clearer picture of labour-market adjustment.
4,620 retrenchments in Q2 2026 is the largest quarterly total since Q4 2020, but headline retrenchments alone don’t show the full labour-market picture.
Longer-term re-employment improves: for residents retrenched in Q2 2025, 57.4% were back in work within six months and 69.8% within a year.
Job growth in Q2 was skewed toward non-residents (Work Permit holders in construction and manufacturing), while resident employment grew modestly by 2,200, concentrated in domestic sectors.
How quickly displaced workers find another job, and what happens to their earnings afterwards, may offer a fuller picture of Singapore's labour market adjustment, says NTU's Chua Yeow Hwee. The number of retrenchments is only one measure of how Singapore's labour market is performing. Employment continued to grow, unemployment remained low, and there were still 1.48 job vacancies for every unemployed person.
The next few quarters will help establish whether the recent decline in six-month re-entry is temporary or whether some workers are taking longer to find employment. What deserves closer attention is what happens after someone loses a job. Following the same group over a longer period offers another perspective.
but that's not the only figure we should watch. Office workers in the central business district of Singapore. Chua Yeow Hwee Chua Yeow Hwee 29 Sep 2026 06:00AM (Updated: 29 Sep 2026 07:44AM) Bookmark Bookmark Share WhatsApp Telegram Facebook Twitter Email LinkedIn Set CNA as your preferred source on Google Add CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results.
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