Hiring trends vary widely across sectors
Just as employment seemed to be growing, Singapore’s job market has reversed course. Job postings fell to their lowest level since March 2021, according to the latest report from job listings website Indeed.
In Feb 2026, shipments fell 4.5% and remained 12% below a year ago, a decline with more than three consecutive months of gains.
However, headline statistics only tell half the story. Hiring trends vary widely across sectors, with gains in some occupations falling sharply in others.
Here’s a breakdown of how job postings have changed in different roles:
Winners and losers
It actually provides a continuous three-month breakdown of the jobs with the biggest change in demand, so we can compare which jobs are rising and which are falling.
Job postings rose in nearly half of job categories over the past three months, led by gains in IT infrastructure, operations and support (+19%), arts and entertainment (+16%) and software development (+15%).
Interestingly, some of the strongest gains were recorded in jobs with high exposure to AI transformation.
But those gains were offset by sharp declines elsewhere.
Postings are down the most in childcare (-29%), dentistry (-23%) and general practitioners and surgeons (-18%), with education and health care among the sectors seeing the most publicized declines in recent months.
Many remote job opportunities
The report also found that employment in space is steadily increasing.
In February, 8.6% of all posts clearly mentioned words like “working from home” or “remote working.” That’s a slight increase from the 8.4% recorded last year, and up from a post-pandemic low of 6.9% in late 2022.
Remote work opportunities are most common in IT systems and solutions at 15.6% of postings in the February quarter, ahead of sales (15.5%) and media and communications (14.0%).
Larger gains were also seen in occupations that previously offered fewer remote or hybrid opportunities. Social sciences (+ 4.5%) and residential (+ 3.5%) led the way.
But not all sectors are moving in the same way.
Remote outsourcing declined most in insurance (-7.5%), human resources (-6.0%), construction (-5.3%), and electrical engineering (-3.6%), underscoring how remote work trends vary widely across occupations.
The labor market remains strong
Overall, however, it appears that the job market situation in Singapore remains stable and strong, despite the decrease in the overall number of openings.
At the end of February, job postings were still 32% above pre-pandemic levels.
The post-pandemic job growth in Singapore was so great that even if job postings fell by 45% as of Jul 2022, it is still high enough to keep the unemployment rate low at just 2% at the end of last year.
However, Singapore’s economy will face strong economic headwinds this year as the conflict in the Middle East causes higher inflation and increased caution from households and businesses alike.
With a strong labor market and strong economic growth over the past year, Singapore is well-positioned to meet these challenges. However, the economic situation has weakened in recent weeks, underscoring the risks ahead.
Indeed, he expects job opportunities to continue to moderate through 2026.
- Read other articles we’ve written about Singapore businesses here.
Featured Image Credit: Shadow_of_light/depositphotos
