Commentary: 4,620 retrenchments in Q2 - but that's not the only figure we should watch - CNA

How quickly displaced workers find another job, and what happens to their earnings afterwards, may offer a fuller picture of Singapore’s labour market adjustment, says NTU’s Chua Yeow Hwee.

Office workers in the central business district of Singapore. (File photo: iStock)

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Chua Yeow Hwee 29 Sep 2026 06:00AM (Updated: 29 Sep 2026 07:44AM) Bookmark Bookmark Share WhatsApp Telegram Facebook Twitter Email LinkedIn Set CNA as your preferred source on Google Add CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results. Read a summary of this article on FAST. Get bite-sized news via a newcards interface. Give it a try. Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST FAST SINGAPORE: 4,620 retrenchments. The number jumps out from Singapore's labour market figures for the second quarter of 2026, marking the highest quarterly total since the fourth quarter of 2020.

But the number of retrenchments is only one measure of how Singapore's labour market is performing.

Singapore’s labour market remains relatively healthy. Employment continued to grow, unemployment remained low, and there were still 1.48 job vacancies for every unemployed person.

What deserves closer attention is what happens after someone loses a job. How quickly do they return to work? What kind of job do they eventually find?