SINGAPORE: Job postings in Singapore fell 4.5% in February to their lowest degree since March 2021, with childcare roles seeing the steepest decline at 29% amongst occupation teams, in accordance with Certainly’s newest Singapore hiring lab report, which tracked proportion modifications in job postings over the three months to Feb 28, 2026.
This comes as Singapore’s whole fertility fee fell to a document low of 0.87 in 2025.
In an early March report by The Impartial Singapore, a Singaporean mother shared 4 causes why fewer Singaporeans might want extra children or select to not have any in any respect.
She famous that it could possibly be attributable to Singapore’s shrinking inexpensive residence sizes, demanding work tradition, rising education-related prices, and restricted help for moms who need to keep residence to care for his or her kids full-time, though the federal government not too long ago introduced that paid shared parental depart will likely be prolonged from six to 10 weeks beginning this month, separate from the prevailing maternity and paternity depart.
In January, the worldwide HR expertise firm anticipated job postings within the city-state to stay on a downward pattern within the close to time period.
Apart from childcare roles, job postings additionally declined in dental (-23%) and civil physicians and surgeons (-18%), with schooling and healthcare amongst occupations the place posting volumes have eased in current months.
Nonetheless, roles with excessive publicity to AI transformation, equivalent to IT infrastructure and software program growth (+15%), recorded a few of the strongest beneficial properties in job postings. Different occupations, together with operations and help (+19%) and humanities and leisure (+16%), additionally noticed notable will increase.
Picture: Certainly
In keeping with Certainly’s report, job postings in 92% of occupations are above their pre-pandemic baseline, and the job market stays “extremely tight”, with the unemployment fee simply 2% on the finish of final 12 months.
With the battle within the Center East triggering greater inflation and elevated cautiousness from households and companies, job alternatives are anticipated to “proceed to average over the course of 2026.
“With the job market nonetheless tight and the economic system rising strongly final 12 months, Singapore is comparatively nicely positioned to soak up the affect of geopolitical uncertainty and a weaker world economic system. Nonetheless, the financial outlook has definitely weakened in current weeks,” the report added. /TISG
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