Entry-level hiring slips
LinkedIn data show entry-level hiring fell about 4.43% year-over-year, signaling continued weakness for junior roles even as senior hiring shifts. (sbr.com.sg)
Entry-level hiring in Singapore fell 4.43% from a year earlier, extending a weak market for first-job roles even as overall hiring stayed active. (sbr.com.sg) LinkedIn said the decline was smaller than the drop for more senior roles, which suggests employers are still hiring cautiously across experience levels in 2026. Singapore Business Review reported the figures from LinkedIn’s latest data on hiring trends. (sbr.com.sg) That weakness is landing as Singapore’s broader labour market still shows demand. The Ministry of Manpower said job vacancies rose to 77,700 in December 2025, and the vacancy-to-unemployed ratio increased to 1.58 from 1.50 in September 2025. (mom.gov.sg) The squeeze is more visible for new graduates than for the market as a whole. Singapore’s 2025 Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey found 74.4% of graduates secured full-time jobs, down from 79.4% in 2024, while 92.2% were in the labour force, up from 90.7%. (straitstimes.com) The Ministry of Manpower also reported that 9,300 fresh resident graduates were employed as of June 2025, with an employment rate of 51.9%, up from 47.9% a year earlier. That points to a market where graduates are still finding work, but more of them are missing out on permanent full-time roles. (straitstimes.com) Analysts had already warned that 2026 would be a cautious hiring year. Channel NewsAsia reported in January that employers were leaning more toward contract hiring and targeted skills as firms managed costs and slower demand in some sectors. (channelnewsasia.com) The pattern fits what the Ministry of Manpower described in late 2025 as slower hiring and reduced labour churn, not a wave of layoffs. In its third-quarter assessment, the ministry said firms were creating fewer new roles and relying more on natural attrition to manage headcount. (channelnewsasia.com) For younger workers, that means the hardest step remains the first one. Jobs still outnumber unemployed people in Singapore, but the latest LinkedIn and graduate survey data show the entry ramp into permanent work has narrowed. (mom.gov.sg)
