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One of the largest job listing portals, Indeed, has just published its latest monthly update using its own data on thousands of job offers in Singapore—and it’s a mix of good and bad news.
Let’s start with the negatives: Jul 2025 saw a month-to-month fall in listings of 4.8%, which is the steepest decline since Feb 2023, 2.5 years ago. What’s more, compared to last year, their number is down by 17.8%. Not good.
On the flip side, however, hiring is still 36% higher than before the pandemic, while resident unemployment remains low at 2.9% (3.0% for citizens). Perhaps, then, more than a slowdown in recruitment, the falling vacancy figures suggest that we’re at the tail end of post-pandemic normalisation, after thousands of jobs disturbed by lockdowns and global inflation have returned, and openings are returning to more normal levels.
As ever, we also have to remember that the general figures do not really show the full picture, which varies wildly depending on your specific profession.
Winners and losers
Indeed provides a rolling three-month breakdown for the professions with the largest swings in demand, so we can compare which jobs are going up and which are falling out of favour.
It sure seems that jobs in recreation are on the rise, with Hospitality & Tourism posting a jump of nearly 30%, and Sports coming in third with a little bit over 10%.
| Best performing occupation groups | Change since Apr 30, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Hospitality & tourism | +29.8% |
| Civil engineering | +15.6% |
| Sports | +10.7% |
| Installation & maintenance | +9.5% |
| Legal | +9% |
| Architecture | +7.3% |
| Mechanical engineering | +5.2% |
| Pharmacy | +4.4% |
| Cleaning & sanitation | +3.6% |
| Medical information | +3.1% |
The opposite end is dominated by healthcare and general care professionals, who see significant decline in demand for their services.
From physicians and surgeons, to veterinarians, childcare staff, dentists as well as personal care and home health workers—these roles are the worst affected, with a 33% drop in listings compared to Apr.
| Worst performing occupation groups | Change since April 30, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Physicians & surgeons | -15.8% |
| Social science | -15.8% |
| Community & social service | -16.1% |
| Veterinary | -18.6% |
| Data & analytics | -19.6% |
| IT infrastructure, operations & support | -22.4% |
| Scientific research & development | -24.6% |
| Childcare | -26.7% |
| Dental | -31% |
| Personal care & home health | -32.9% |
Pay transparency in retreat
The report also found that employers in Singapore have significantly decreased their openness to revealing financial conditions of the jobs.
While over 30% of job postings included salary details in the past two years, that figure has now dropped to just 21%.
Once more, however, it depends on the profession, with some occupations—usually simpler or better-defined in scope—providing financial information in the majority of the cases.
Others, likely much better paid (in legal services, finance or IT) are keeping it secret, though the secrecy is probably driven by competition for talent and preventing rivals from comparisons which could start a bidding war.
The labour market still remains strong
On the whole, though, it seems like the labour market situation in Singapore still remains stable and strong, despite the decrease in the total number of openings and pay transparency.
“The post-pandemic job boom in Singapore was so large that job postings could fall for three years and job creation would still be strong enough to keep the unemployment rate low,” said Callam Pickering, Indeed’s APAC Senior Economist.
“Even with July’s decline, overall hiring remains strong and healthy above pre-pandemic levels.”
The coming months are likely to show us whether the ongoing tariff upheaval, started by Donald Trump, is going to impact Singapore-based companies, hurting profits and, possibly, leading to employment cuts. The full consequences will be known once the tariffs on semiconductors and pharmaceutical products are finally decided.
- Read other articles we’ve written on job trends here.
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