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However, the 12-month re-entry rate, which covers earlier retrenchment cohorts, remained broadly stable from 69.4% to 69.8% over the same period.
Singapore’s labour market expanded in Q2 2026, mainly owing to an increase in non-resident employment, which grew by 9,200, up from 4,100 in Q1. This was mostly due to increases in Work Permit Holders in construction and manufacturing sectors, according to the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) Labour Market report for Q2 2026.
Overall, the labour landscape has weakened, as retrenchments rose from 3,830 (or 1.6 retrenched per 1,000 employees) in Q1 2026 to 4,620 in Q2 2026. The increase in layoffs was concentrated in outward-oriented sectors such as manufacturing, information & communications, and financial services, and driven mainly by business reorganisation or restructuring.
Job vacancies declined, mainly among PMET vacancies in financial services and information & communications sectors. Nonetheless, vacancies continued to outnumber unemployed persons, with 1.48 vacancies per unemployed person in June 2026.
Six-month re-entry outcomes
Six-month re-entry outcomes softened with the proportion of retrenched residents returning to employment declining from 60.7% in 1Q 2026 to 54.9% in 2Q 2026. Separately, the 12-month re-entry rate, which covers earlier retrenchment cohorts, remained broadly stable at 69.8%, compared with 69.4% in Q1.
The decline in six-month re-entry rates among retrenched residents in Q2 2026 was broad-based across occupations. It was most pronounced among clerical, sales and service workers. Re-entry rates among PMETs also declined from 59.6% to 54.1%.
By educational qualification, degree holders and residents with diploma and professional qualification recorded the largest declines in six-month re-entry rates. The rate for degree holders fell from 58.3% to 49.9%, while that for diploma and professional qualification holders declined from 69.4% to 61.3%.
Degree holders continued to record the lowest re-entry rate among educational groups with available data.
Alternate working arrangements
The number of employees placed on short work-week arrangements or temporary layoff fell from 1,230 to 700, suggesting that fewer firms needed to reduce working hours as a way of managing weaker demand.
The decline was driven mainly by construction (from 390 to 140) and manufacturing (from 260 to 160), as well as among production & transport operators, cleaners & labourers (from 710 to 260), partly reversing the increases recorded by these groups in the previous quarter.
Similar to previous quarters, most affected employees were placed on short work-week in Q2 2026 (550, from 940 in Q1 2026) rather than temporary layoff (150, from 300).
Despite the decline, non PMETs continued to account for the majority (360) of employees placed on short work-week in Q2 2026. This may partly reflect the higher prevalence of hourly-rated work in non-PMET occupations.
READ MORE: Singapore's workplace major injury rate hit an all-time low in H1 2026
Lead image / MOM
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