AI investments, offshoring driving retrenchments in Singapore
Retrenchment and termination-related cases handled by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) went up in 2025, The Straits Times reported, as job losses among white-collar workers continued to rise.
The NTUC handled more than 3,900 retrenchment- and termination-related cases involving professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) last year, a five per cent increase from 2024, The Straits Times reported.
NTUC assistant secretary-general Patrick Tay said the figures reflect a growing trend of business restructuring driving PME job losses, with offshoring and artificial intelligence cited as key factors.
"We are also seeing businesses cite investments in AI as a factor for workforce restructuring. Some workers find themselves displaced because job roles are changing faster than they can adapt," Tay told The Straits Times.
Retrenchments in Singapore
Singapore recorded a total of 14,490 retrenchments in 2025, up from 12,930 the year before, with white-collar workers bearing a disproportionate share of the pressure.
The retrenchment incidence for resident PMETs rose to 10.1 per 1,000 in 2025, above the pre-recessionary average, compared to 8.6 per 1,000 in 2024. The overall count has more than doubled since 2022, when 6,440 workers lost their jobs.
Retrenchments continue to happen this year, with Swedish retailer H&M shedding Singapore roles as it relocates its regional headquarters for Southeast Asia to Malaysia.
The relocation prompted new questions on whether the shift of roles overseas can still count as retrenchments.
NTUC told Channel NewsAsia that it was concerned about such practices, and clarified that if the outcome of such arrangements is that a worker's role in Singapore is made redundant, it is recognised and treated as retrenchment regardless of how it is framed.
The Ministry of Manpower also told CNA that losing a job because a role has been made redundant in Singapore, whether eliminated or shifted overseas, constitutes a retrenchment, regardless of whether the employee applied for an overseas role or the outcome of that application.
