At the Committee of Supply debates held in Parliament, Minister of Manpower Tan See Leng revealed that while inflation has been a challenge to manage, over the last five years, the median real monthly income of local worker grew by 3.6%. For lower-wage workers, this was higher at 5.9%.
“This means while prices have risen, our wages have increased more,” he said.
He added on: “We have done better than other advanced economies, such as the United Kingdom, United States and Japan, where real wages have stagnated or declined.”
“Beyond recovering, we helped workers and businesses to emerge stronger.”
Support for all Singaporean workers from employment to retirement
He then shared how Singaporean workers across different career stages have been supported by the Government in recent years.
“For working professionals in their 20s to 40s, we helped advance their careers.”
“Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs) helped 37,000 workers reskill into growth jobs over the last five years.”
“For mature workers in their 50s onwards, we helped them stay meaningfully employed,” Minister Tan revealed.
He goes on about how protection for vulnerable groups has been strengthened, and initiatives have also been launched to help Singaporean workers save up for retirement.
For those who lost their jobs involuntarily, the SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support Scheme was introduced to provide temporary financial support while they look for a job. For lower-wage workers, their wages were uplifted.
Minister Tan said: “We expanded the Progressive Wage Models (PWM), raised the Local Qualifying Salary (LQS), and enhanced the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) to boost their incomes and CPF savings.”
He added that up to nine in 10 full-time lower-wage workers are now covered by PWM, LQS, and the Progressive Wage Mark, an accreditation scheme recognising eligible firms that pay progressive wages to uplift lower-wage workers.
For platform workers, housing and retirement adequacy, work injury compensation, and representation were strengthened. Finally, for persons with disabilities, their employment rate was boosted from 28% to 34% over the past five years.
Minister Tan shared his belief that the $9 billion Majulah Package, introduced in 2024, has strengthened the retirement adequacy of all Singaporeans.
“We expect to spend over $800 million on the enhanced Silver Support Scheme this year for 290,000 seniors,” he said, adding that 740,000 Singaporeans will be eligible for the enhanced Matched Retirement Savings Scheme.
“We want to assure all Singaporeans that they can meet their basic retirement needs so long as they work and contribute consistently to CPF.”
“We will also uplift those who are unable to, or lack the runway to, work and save through CPF.”
Help for businesses to train and hire Singaporeans
Minister Tan also brought up the 17 Job Transformation Maps (JTM) that were launched since 2019. He revealed that around 10,000 companies received support to train and hire workers, and to redesign jobs through schemes like the Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs).
In 2023, the HR Industry Transformation Plan was also launched to drive workplace transformation.
In addition, he believes that the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests, which was launched recently in April 2024, will help build local employer capabilities, to better attract and retain talent in the workforce.
“This could potentially unlock access to a sizeable group, with about 240,000 women and 130,000 seniors of working age outside the labour force today,” he said.
Find your next job on MyCareersFuture. We have over 100,000 job opportunities daily for you.
The upcoming challenge for Singapore, our workers, and our employers
However, with significant geopolitical and economic uncertainties ahead, the Government has projected a more cautious pace of Gross National Product (GDP) for 2025, at 1-3%.
Minister Tan shared the two challenges that will make growth harder to sustain for Singapore includes our shrinking and ageing population, as well as intensifying global competition.
He revealed: “With our low fertility, our resident workforce is expected to stop growing by the next decade.”
“Our population is also ageing: one in four Singaporeans are projected to be aged 65 and above by 2030.”
At the same time, Minister Tan added, cities like New York, London and Dubai are attracting top companies and talent in fields like biotechnology and artificial intelligence (AI).
What’s the gameplan for Singapore then?
He mused on what it would take to continually grow Singapore’s economic pie and continue to create meaningful opportunities for local workers and believes the only sustainable way forward is productivity-driven growth.
Minister Tan referenced DPM and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong’s speech during COS 2025, which focused on three key points for Singapore’s playbook:
- To strengthen our connectivity to the world;
- To help local companies build new brands and businesses; and
- To foster a pro-enterprise environment for growth in areas like advanced manufacturing, deep tech, and the green economy.
“This is an exciting opportunity to reshape our economy into one driven by productivity and innovation.”
“The global order has changed dramatically. Singapore can stand out as a beacon of stability and openness, drawing in global talent and companies,” Minister Tan said.
At the same time, Minister Tan empathised with local businesses that understand the need to transform but face a high-cost environment.
Part of the increase in manpower cost has been necessary to uplift lower-wage workers, a priority in Singapore’s social compact, he said. However, he added: “We will alleviate businesses’ short-term pressures, while driving long-term transformation.”
Empowering workers to build their career health with Career Health SG
Minister Tan said: “Singaporeans have a world-class education and work ethic. As our economy transforms, we are well-poised to take advantage of new opportunities.”
However, formal education is not sufficient, he warned, and referenced a recent OECD Survey of Adult Skills, which showed that Singaporeans’ literacy skills declined as early as in their mid-30s.
“We must do more to pursue lifelong learning,” he said.
In Forward Singapore engagements, Singaporeans shared that they looked forward to new opportunities but were uncertain how to get there.
This has led to the launch of Career Health SG, a new nationwide initiative to help workers take charge of their careers and achieve their career aspirations.
Minister Tan said: “Career Health SG is our commitment to empower Singaporeans to develop meaningful and resilient careers amidst economic changes.”
Career Health SG is a new nationwide initiative to help workers take charge of their careers and achieve their career aspirations.
He also sympathised with those anxious about their livelihoods, or struggling to find roles that match their expectations, and said: “You are not alone.”
“We have a wide range of programmes to help you stay up to date in the job market, stay employed, and seize good job opportunities.”
“This is the spirit behind Career Health SG. I hope everyone takes full advantage of these programmes to broaden your career horizons,” he added.
Speaking on extending the productive longevity of seniors and strengthening retirement adequacy, Minister Tan said that as Singapore’s population ages, the goal is to help our senior workers remain productive for as long as they wish to.
As such, a tripartite-led effort will be launched later in 2025 to co-develop ideas with citizens and businesses on enabling multi-stage careers for mature workers.
Senior Minister of State (SMS) Koh Poh Koon elaborated on MOM’s efforts to empower Singaporeans to build career health and strengthen support for employers.
He shared how efforts would be made to help these three groups in our workforce:
- The broad base of local workers, to help build up their career health and resilience;
- Those who lose their jobs involuntarily, to support them to bounce back into employment; and
- Senior workers, to do more to uplift their productive longevity.
CareersFinder will provide local workers better insights to plan for their career health
SMS Koh shared how Singaporean workers will be supported with jobs and skills insights to help them make informed training and career decisions with WSG’s CareersFinder.
It is designed to harness government data and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide workers with personalised guidance and recommendations for suitable jobs based on their skills and experience, and training opportunities based on their career goals.
“More than 55,000 individuals have used CareersFinder since its launch.”
“We have seen encouraging signs of users broadening their job search horizons. Users have applied for a wider range of occupations – almost 40% more! – after using CareersFinder.”
Personalised career guidance from professional career coaches with Polaris
SMS Koh shared on Polaris which allows employed individuals to receive personalised career guidance from professionally certified career coaches.
Since November 2023, Polaris has benefited more than 620 individuals, he revealed, with over 90% reported gaining clearer direction and higher confidence in planning their own careers.
Jobseekers can also receive support from WSG’s Volunteer Career Advisors, who draw from their own industry expertise to provide peer-level support and career advisory.
Under this initiative, individuals can receive sector and occupation-specific insights to help them plan for their career or transition to new roles.
SMS Koh shared that Singaporeans who want to use their SkillsFuture Credits (which comprises the $500 opening credit and the one-off $500 top-up that was given in 2020) for Polaris and all eligible career guidance services will now be able to do so.
SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support (JS) Scheme will help the involuntarily retrenched
He shared more on the JS Scheme, which was previously announced by PM Wong last year.
“It is not just a safety net that stops one from falling, but is instead designed to act as a trampoline that helps one to bounce back.”
“Together with other SkillsFuture programmes, the JS scheme helps individuals better navigate their job search to regain employment, instead of rushing into ill-fitting jobs due to immediate financial pressures,” SMS Koh said.
The JS scheme targets lower and middle income workers and will provide eligible jobseekers with financial support of up to $6,000 over six months. This will help them to get through setbacks and bounce back stronger.
He revealed that more than $200 million will be set aside by the government for the scheme. It is expected that around 60,000 individuals will be eligible for the scheme each year. This accounts for more than 60% of those involuntarily unemployed.
“The JS Scheme is therefore more than just financial payouts and a job – it includes a simple and easy framework to guide jobseekers along the activities that they should embark on, to equip themselves to find a job and re-enter the working world with confidence.”
“This framework, called the ‘jobseeker support activities-based system’, will guide our jobseekers towards re-employment,” SMS Koh said.
The JS scheme will be launched in mid-April 2025, and WSG will be sharing more information on the application process ahead of its launch.
Involuntarily unemployed individuals can also visit WSG and NTUC-e2i’s centres island-wide for support in their job search.
Support for senior workers to help those who want to work longer
Currently, the Senior Employment Credit (SEC) provides up to 7% in wage offsets to employers who hire Singaporeans aged 60 and above, earning below $4,000 a month.
Since its introduction in 2021, more than 117,000 employers have benefited from the scheme, hiring over 514,000 senior workers. Around $1 billion has been disbursed.
SMS Koh shared that the SEC will be extended to 2026 at the COS debates.
In line with the increase in the Re-employment Age to 69 years old in 2026, the qualifying age for the highest SEC wage support tier of 7% will also be raised to 69 years old, up from 68 currently.
WSG and its partners will also provide targeted career guidance workshops for seniors, to help them better plan for their later-stage careers.
“We hope this assures employers that the government will support you to prepare for our ageing workforce,” he said.
Localised job matching at all CDCs
SMS Koh announced the expansion of localised job matching to all Community Development Councils (CDCs). This will enable jobseekers to find work near their homes, to help them balance work with personal commitments.
This will contribute to the diverse range of services in the employment facilitation landscape. These services support all jobseekers, including those returning after a career break. The services include career matching services offered by:
as well as services provided by WSG’s appointed career matching providers like Ingeus and AKG.
Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs) to be expanded to support flexi-work
WSG works with employers to reskill and place individuals into good growth jobs under programmes like the CCPs and Mid-Career Pathways Programme.
WSG’s CCPs provide employers with salary support when they reskill mid-career new hires or existing employees into growth job roles identified under the Industry Transformation Maps or Jobs Transformation Maps.
These roles span approximately 30 sectors, including financial services, retail, built environment, and information and communications.
In 2024 alone, these programmes placed more than 56,000 jobseekers into jobs, SMS Koh revealed, and resulted in tangible career outcomes for employees.
A recent study by MOM economists found that the Place-and-Train CCP increased participants’ wages by more than 2% in the year of placement, with the impact rising to over 6% in the subsequent years.
Participants also improved their employment retention compared to non-participants.
“This shows that our efforts to reskill workers have an extended, positive impact on their wages and career longevity,” SMS Koh said.
Minister of State (MOS) for Manpower Gan Siow Huang added at the COS debates: “Whether at work or at home, we want women and caregivers to feel supported in managing their roles and empowered to pursue their aspirations.”
Women in Singapore have made progress in recent years – the employment rate for women aged 25 to 64 increased from 73.3% in 2019 to 78.3% in 2024.
This means more women who wish to remain in work or return to work have found the opportunities to do so.
Currently, the CCPs only covers full-time jobs.
To further support women and caregivers, and others who want to return to the workforce with more flexible career options, from April 2025, CCPs will be enhanced to support reskilling of mid-career new hires and employees in jobs with flexi-load arrangements such as part-time work.
To qualify, they must be reskilled into growth job roles and be employed on permanent terms or contract terms of at least one year.
As such, employers can now tap on CCPs, even for part-time positions.
For instance, a cybersecurity company looking to hire a part-time employee can now tap on the CCPs to hire and reskill a mid-career worker from another sector.
During the training period, WSG will fund up to 90% of the worker’s salary, capped at $7,500 per month.
SkillsFuture Mid-Career Training Allowance to kick off in March 2025
Minister for Education Chan Chun Seng shared in Parliament that applications for the SkillsFuture Mid-Career Training Allowance for full-time training will open on March 2025.
Individuals with income in the latest-available 12 months will qualify for the full-time training allowance. The monthly training allowance is computed at 50% of one’s average income over the latest-available 12 months, with a minimum allowance of $300 and maximum allowance of $3,000.
The SkillsFuture Mid-Career Training Allowance will be extended to selected part-time training from early 2026.
Singapore citizens aged 40 and above who wish to continue working while pursuing substantive part-time training will receive a flat rate of $300 per month to defray incidental training expenses.
Singapore Citizens aged 40 and above will be eligible for a maximum of 24 months of the SkillsFuture Mid-Career Training Allowance regardless of whether the training is part-time or full-time.
For full-time training, those eligible must be enrolled in one of the following courses:
- SSG’s full-time SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme (SCTP);
- Full-time Full Qualifications up to the undergraduate degree level offered by the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs); or
- Full-time MOE-subsidised Full Qualifications up to the undergraduate degree-level offered by the University of the Arts Singapore and Arts Institutions.
For part-time training, those eligible must be enrolled in one of the following courses:
- SSG’s part-time SCTP; or
- Part-time Full Qualifications up to the undergraduate degree-level offered by the IHLs and micro-credentials that can be stacked to these Full Qualifications.
The training allowance of $300 per month will be given to Singaporeans aged 40 and above pursuing part-time training under SkillsFuture from early 2026 and can be used on incidental training expenses like books and transport.
SkillsFuture Credit (Mid-Career) top-up has been introduced
Starting from May 2024, the SkillsFuture Credit (Mid-Career) top-up of $4,000, which does not expire, can further offset nett course fees for selected courses that have better employability outcomes.
From Academic Year 2025, Singaporeans will qualify for Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy for another publicly funded full-time Diploma from ITE (Technical/Technical Engineering Diploma), Polytechnics (via Direct Admissions Exercise) and Arts Institutions (NAFA, LASALLE).
The list of full-time diplomas and application periods for admission can be found on the institutions’ websites.
These initiatives are introduced on top of the existing Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy (MCES), which covers up to 90% of course fees for courses funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG).
Minister Tan admitted that as economic transformation speeds up, there are concerns on worker protections.
As such, MOM will embark on a review of the Employment Act with tripartite partners, to ensure that Singapore continues to strike the right balance between protection for workers and flexibility for businesses. He added that more will be shared on this review later this year.
New WSS (Level-Up) will help Singapore’s lower-wage workers to upskill and continue wage growth
Senior Minister of State for Manpower Zaqy Mohamad shared at the COS debates that the current suite of Progressive Wage measures – the PWM, the LQS and the Progressive Wage Mark accreditation scheme – now benefit up to nine in 10 full-time lower-wage workers today.
From 2019 to 2024, real wages at the 20th percentile rose cumulatively by 5.9%, higher than the median worker at 3.6%.
This means that although costs of living rose, the wages of lower-wage workers rose even more.
SMS Zaqy said the key to raising wages sustainably over the long term is for both workers and businesses to become more productive.
“Businesses must transform lower-wage jobs for higher value-add and improve the efficiency of their operations.”
“At the same time, with better jobs created, there will be demands for new skillsets and competencies.”
“Workers will need to upskill to seize these opportunities, and we will step up our efforts to help them do so.”
Since 2010, the government has been supporting lower-wage workers in their upskilling journey through the Workfare Skills Support (WSS) scheme.
Currently, WSS is mainly targeted at short courses that can be completed over a few days. It covers the opportunity costs of training for lower-wage workers aged 30 and above.
For example, those pursuing training on their own initiative receive a training allowance of $6 per hour.
However, lower-wage workers stand to benefit more from long-form courses that provide more robust upskilling and reskilling, which are associated with more significant wage improvements.
The challenge, of course, is that these take longer, and the opportunity cost is therefore also higher.
As such, WSS will be enhanced by the introduction of a new tier of support called the WSS (Level-up), targeted at helping lower-wage workers who wish to pursue long-form training.
WSS (Level-Up) will provide lower-wage workers who pursue long-form training with substantially higher training allowance, to cover the higher opportunity costs. Full-time trainees will receive a monthly allowance set at 50% of their average monthly income based on the latest available 12-month period, with a minimum monthly allowance of $300. Part-time trainees will receive a fixed monthly allowance of $300. This will benefit workers aged 30 and above, earning up to $3,000 per month.
Effectively, WSS (Level-Up) trainees will receive up to $18,000 per year for full-time training, and up to $3,600 per year for part-time training. This is more than three times the training allowance currently provided through WSS.
Workers in lower-wage jobs may need more bouts of long-form training across their career stages to acquire the necessary skills for more complex job roles, or pivot to new sectors.
Hence, WSS (Level-Up) will cover up to 24 months of long-form training done before the age of 40, and another 24 months of long-form training from 40.
WSS (Level-Up) will be rolled out from early 2026.
There will also be enhanced Progressive Wage Credit Scheme (PWCS) support for businesses, with the government’s co-funding of wage increases given to lower-wage workers to go up from 30% to 40% in 2025, and from 15% to 20% in 2026.
SMS Zaqy said: “The upcoming PWCS enhancements will continue to provide short-term relief, but I strongly urge employers to make good use of this to accelerate your transformation efforts, so that we can uplift lower-wage workers sustainably over the long-term.”
Supporting the employment of persons with disabilities (PWDs)
MOS Gan revealed the Ministry of Manpower will extend the Enabling Employment Credit (EEC), for three years, until 2028.
Under the EEC, eligible employers of PWDs will receive a wage offset of up to $400 per month.
This goes up to $800 per month, for the first nine months of employment if the new hire was previously not working for at least six months.
In addition, PWDs will get support to save more for their retirement needs.
Today, under the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme, (MRSS), the government provides a dollar-for-dollar matching grant to encourage CPF top-ups for eligible Singaporean seniors from age 55.
The MRSS will be expanded to include eligible Singaporeans with disabilities of all ages from 1 Jan 2026.
“We hope such efforts will help persons with disabilities build up their nest eggs early so that they can approach retirement with a greater sense of security,” MOS Gan said.
Strengthening career support for ex-offenders
WSG partners with Yellow Ribbon Singapore (YRSG), which provides employment assistance and post-placement support to inmates and ex-offenders.
These initiatives are further supported by the Uplifting Employment Credit (UEC), which provides wage offsets to employers that hire ex-offenders.
In 2024, the UEC supported the employment of more than 1,500 ex-offenders hired by about 700 employers.
Building on the positive responses, MOM will be extending the UEC for three years, until 2028.
Under UEC, eligible employers can receive a wage offset of up to $600 per month for the first nine months of employment, amounting up to $5,400 for each new ex-offender hired.
A new SkillsFuture Workforce Development Grant (WDG) will be introduced
This will bring together schemes administered by WSG and SSG, simplifying the application process.
Companies can access a holistic suite of workforce development support via one application channel, for activities like job redesign, capability building and training. WSG will work with anchor programme partners to advise companies on suitable solutions.
Currently, WSG provides funding support of up to 50%, capped at $30,000, for companies to engage pre-approved consultants on job redesign.
Under the WDG, this will be increased to 70%, and the cap of $30,000 will be reviewed and raised.
“Some larger companies have begun identifying workers who may be impacted by AI and proactively reskilling them for new jobs,” Minister Tan said.
As such, there will be an expansion of the scope of coverage for job redesign expenses, beyond consultancy services, to include equipping line managers and HR with job redesign and change management skills, as well as identifying workforce solutions and AI tools.
More details will be shared in due course, he added.
The SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit (SFEC) will be redesigned in 2026
Minister Tan said feedback had been received that the SFEC’s reimbursement model could better address companies’ cashflow issues, and be clearer on which schemes the credits could be used for.
As such, a redesigned scheme will allow eligible companies to get a fresh $10,000 of credits.
Like an online wallet, companies can use the credits to offset out-of-pocket expenses on relevant workforce transformation programmes.
More funding to help employers transform and pivot human resource to be skills-first
The NTUC Company Training Committee (CTC) was enhanced in 2024 to support training tied to business transformation.
Minister Tan revealed that the take up for the CTC has been encouraging. As of December 2024, the CTC Grant has supported more than 400 transformation projects, benefitting over 7,000 workers.
As announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in the Budget 2025 speech, around $200 million will be set aside to scale up the grant, while also extending it to 2028.
The CTC will also be expanded to fund employer-led training that provides workers with formal certifications. The CTC Grant will provide enhanced support via course fee subsidies and absentee payroll.
SMS Koh added that WSG also has workshops for HR professionals and line managers, to equip them to implement better-structured career conversations in their organisation.
(Main Image Credit: MDDI ; Infographics Credit: MOM, MOE, WSG)
