According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on Friday, the total unemployment rate in Singapore remains stable and low, at 2% overall and under 3% for local residents (citizens and PR). What’s more, hiring was strong in the third quarter of 2025, with nearly 30,000 jobs added, for a total of close to 50,000 this year (those figures include non-residents, though). Image Credit: Ministry of Trade and Industry Your personal situation, however, depends on what you do. And things are less rosy when we look at how specific industries are performing, as seven of them are reporting net losses totaling 19,800 people over the nine months of 2025. Changes in employment by sector Industry Q1 2025 Q2 2025 Q3 2025 Total in 2025 Real Estate -700 -2,500 -1,200 -4,400 Information & Communications -1,600 -1,700 -800 -4,100 Professional Services -1,200 -2,600 -300 -4,100 Retail Trade -2,400 -2,300 900 -3,800 Wholesale Trade 700 300 -2,900 -1,900 Education 100 100 -1,100 -900 Food & Beverage Services -100 -1,200 700 -600 Accommodation 100 -300 1,000 800 Administrative & Support Services 1,100 3,500 -2,700 1,900 Arts, Entertainment & Recreation -200 900 1,400 2,100 Public Administration & Defence 1,500 100 800 2,400 Transportation & Storage 2,400 600 500 3,500 Manufacturing -400 900 5,400 5,900 Health & Social Services 3,000 1,800 2,200 7,000 Financial & Insurance Services 2,500 5,700 2,100 10,300 Other Services 3,500 3,800 9,700 17,000 Construction -1,000 5,800 13,700 18,500 TOTAL 6,900 12,900 29,900 49,700 Source: Economic Survey of Singapore, Third Quarter of 2025. / Ministry of Trade and Industry What’s worse, most of the net growth industries (with a notable exception of Finance & Insurance) are at the lower end of the pay scale. Construction and migrant domestic workers make up the majority of new hires this year. Meanwhile, high-value sectors employing qualified locals like IT, professional services, trade, or even real estate—clearly affected by the cooling measures enacted by the government to tame housing inflation—are bleeding thousands of jobs.   While MTI does not provide a detailed breakdown of employees’ residency status per industry, it’s quite clear which of them are dominated by locals and expats, and which employ mostly low-cost, temporary migrants or, at best, mid-level S-Pass holders working in support roles. Information & Communications is a particularly interesting case, after otherwise positive news for the industry in Singapore reported earlier this year, with rising salaries and seemingly growing demand for talent as well (despite layoffs sweeping the rest of the world). In practice, however, it is seeing a significant net reduction in employment—over 4,000 people this year and a total of 9,500 if we include 2024 as well—despite frequent complaints about a deficit of candidates. Some consolation may be found in the observation that tech workers do not necessarily have to work in tech companies, as employers in other businesses have a burning need for qualified IT staff, too.   Other findings point to changing demands for specific tech skills, which may have led to reductions in some functional areas and deep, yet-to-be-filled gaps in others (like AI or anything that deals with data), explaining the reported lack of good applicants. Image Credit: IMDA Whatever it is, the fact remains that the headcount of the IT sector in Singapore has shrunk by nearly 10,000 people over the past two years. Even if most of them have found work elsewhere, it suggests problems in the technology industry. Fortunately, not everybody has reasons to worry—especially those in Finance & Insurance Services, which are continuing their relentless climb, adding 10,300 workers this year, making up for some of the losses in other branches of the economy. Perhaps some of the new hires moved over there from IT. That said, growing employment in banks does not seem to be enough to offset cuts in other places, and not everybody has the skills or even the desire to work in one of the big corporations. The economy needs a healthy diversity of career options, which, unfortunately, appear to be shrinking in Singapore this year.

nothing to do with SG, just keep quiet la. other country is not sinkies, which is good to be builled    

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takashi's recent Taiwan-related remarks have triggered continued tensions in Sino-Japanese relations. Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong pointed out at the Bloomberg Innovation Economic Forum dinner on November 29 that he certainly hopes that China and Japan will find ways to cool down the current problems. He explained that China and Japan are each other's important trading partners, but the relationship is complicated because the relationship between the two countries must be viewed through the context of strategic competition between China and the United States; they also have disputes over the Senkaku Islands (called the Diaoyu Islands in China), and have never been out of the shadow of World War II. He immediately mentioned: "We hope that the two countries can find solutions to these extremely complex issues and move forward". Southeast Asia has done this with Japan. Regarding historical issues, it took some time, but as time goes by and generations change, the emotions become different, and we put history aside and move forward   Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong attended the Bloomberg New Economy Forum dinner on November 19, during which he responded to the tension between China and Japan over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takashi's Taiwan-related remarks. ( gov.sg)     When asked what he thought of Takashi Sanae's remarks, Lawrence Wong did not comment directly, but he believed that Japan obviously wanted to cool down the dispute, stabilize relations with China, and avoid further escalation of the situation. He said: I hope China has the same attitude. Even if there are differences, the two countries can still get along and cooperate In short, in terms of Sino-Japanese relations, Lawrence Wong believes that Southeast Asia has reconciled with Japan and China should rest their knots. In Takashi Sanae's remarks about Taiwan, Japan is cooling down, and China should also cool down. On the surface, Lawrence Wong is trying to persuade peace. Essentially Lawrence Wong expressed his advice to China on its handling of Sino-Japanese relations. Singapore has always believed that it plays an important role in international affairs, especially its unique approach to communicating between East and West. Even former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has publicly said that Singapore is a "shiny little red dot". The implication inside and out is: Yes, we are small, but we are small and powerful, small and bright, so small that you cannot ignore it.   On June 24, 2025, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who was visiting China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. ( Xinhua News Agency)     In the past, Singapore did have arrogant capital. Lee Kuan Yew, in particular, has a unique eye and adopts "balance of power diplomacy" between China and the United States. He visited China during the Western blockade of China in the 1970s. He is a rare international politician who has met with generations of Chinese leaders. During Lee Hsien Loong's tenure, Singapore also demonstrated its international influence. In November 2015, leaders from both sides of the Taiwan Strait met in Singapore for the first time since 1949. In 2018, Singapore organized a meeting between US President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Since taking office in 2024, Lawrence Wong, who succeeded Lee Hsien Loong, has made no particularly significant achievements to highlight his diplomatic skills. If it is his approach to publicly advise China, it only shows that he is very naive in diplomacy. This is not even called balance of power diplomacy, but microphone diplomacy on the opposite side of China. If it is a private persuasion and negotiation, as long as it is accepted by the other party, there is nothing wrong with it. As the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lawrence Wong publicly expressed his advice to China. To say that it sounds good is that Little Red Dot is trying to continue to generate great energy. To say that it sounds bad is to point fingers. Public speech is used to defend positions and interests, not to express one's own thoughts and perceptions. Huang Xuncai made such a public suggestion to China. The obvious subtext is that China should look forward to Japan and cool down. He disagrees with China's current approach. China is willing to maintain good relations with Singapore and is interested in its flexible figure in the East and the West. If there are good suggestions, China is certainly willing to listen, but it will never accept biased finger-pointing.   The picture shows Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong being sworn in as the fourth Prime Minister of Singapore at the Singapore Presidential Palace on 15 May 2024, and shaking hands with the outgoing incumbent Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. ( REUTERS/Edgar Su/Pool     What Lawrence Wong said is that Southeast Asia has reconciled with Japan, and China should also put aside its knots and have no reference value to China at all. In the past few decades, Japan has relied on U.S. support and economic advantages to be in an advantageous position when dealing with Southeast Asian countries. Southeast Asian countries simply do not have the ability to dispute the United States' dominance of Japan's post-war liquidation. If one day Southeast Asia fully catches up with Japan in terms of power development, the latest remarks calling for the liquidation of Japan in World War II will only be more, not less. It is not that Southeast Asia and Japan have reconciled, but that Southeast Asia simply does not have the ability or thought to say no to Japan. For a long time, Southeast Asian countries that have been invaded by Japan have a tolerant or even oblivious attitude towards Japan's history of aggression, which is not deeply related to Japan's colonial rule in Southeast Asia. During World War II, Japan's foreign expansion was mainly to annex the Korean Peninsula and invade China. China experienced the 13-year Anti-Japanese War, with as many as 30 million victims. The Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia began in 1941. By May 1942, the Japanese army basically controlled the Southeast Asian resource area, but the setback in the Coral Sea naval battle caused the all-out offensive to stagnate. The attitude of most countries in Southeast Asia towards the Japanese invaders is that the suzerain countries have changed from Western powers to Japan. Southeast Asia, especially Singapore, simply cannot understand the complex national sentiments that arise after China, a country that has been very powerful in its long history, was invaded by Japan. It is not that China is obsessed with the past. South Korea and Japan are both allies of the United States. Even with the mediation of the United States, South Korea has also not reconciled with Japan on historical issues. Conflicts between Japan and China, South Korea and other countries occur frequently. The fundamental reason is that Japan's war crimes have not been fundamentally liquidated and Japan has not completely repented of the war. Lawrence Wong only saw China's harsh attitude towards Japan, but he could not see that Japan did not take the past seriously and reflect seriously. Lawrence Wong made China relax and look forward. In fact, he wanted to allow Japan to break away from the post-war order and continue to tolerate Japan's incorrect words and deeds. This is support and appeasement of Japan.   On May 31, 2025, the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore was attended by U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani. ( Reuters)   Behind Takashi Sanae's Taiwan-related remarks is Japan's offside in China's core interests. Japan hopes to let it go after doing something wrong, but asking China to cool down in the same way is to make China tolerate violations of its core interests. Does Lawrence Wong really think that Japan's offside on the Taiwan issue is tolerable? If Singapore sees Japan's offside on the Taiwan issue so lightly, it only shows that Singapore's strategic vision has been clouded. Compared with Lee Kuan Yew and Lee Hsien Loong, the third generation leaders of Singapore, their strategic judgment skills are not a little worse. Lawrence Wong should see that China is already the second largest economy in the world, the largest economy in Asia, and its total economic volume is three or four times that of Japan. Japan used to be the target of pursuit by Southeast Asian countries, but now China is Asia's new "sun". Even from a pragmatic standpoint, Singapore should not have such an attitude towards China, which is not even the most basic neutrality and rare mud. During the Lee Kuan Yew period, China's national strength was far from that of the United States, and Singapore was still able to maintain neutrality between China and the United States. Now China has emerged as a great power on an equal footing with the United States. The balance of power between China and Japan has already undergone historic changes. But Singapore's preference for Japan between China and Japan is to show its unconventional attitude of not being afraid of great powers? Or foolishly started to take sides and got it wrong? Little red dots will glow, but how can the glow of fireflies compare with the sun and moon? Even if they want to take sides, Singapore is not qualified.   https://www.hk01.com/國際分析/60296530/應該對日本降温-新加坡沒資格對中國指手畫腳  

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