Singapore’s labor force has shrunk for the third consecutive year as its population ages amid a falling birth rate, prompting the government to urge employers to diversify their hiring and retain more older workers.
The proportion of Singapore’s residents aged 15 and over participating in the labor force dipped slightly to 68.2 percent this year, down from 68.6 percent in 2023, according to the latest report from the city-state’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM). Officials attributed the decline to the rising number of seniors.
“Whilst the labor force participation rate remains high, it has declined for the third year in a row due to a rising proportion of seniors,” the ministry said in a statement on November 28. “As the workforce continues to get older, ongoing efforts to enhance the employment and employability of senior workers are more important than ever.”
Newsweek reached out to the Singapore government by email with a request for comment.
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While labor force numbers have declined slightly, the employment rate among Singaporeans over 15 remains robust compared with other major cities, the ministry noted. For comparison, New York City’s labor force participation rate stood at just 61.2 percent in October, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Ministry noted that workforce participation among Singaporeans aged 55 and older has increased, citing initiatives to boost seniors’ employability.
However, those aged 65 and above exceeded 19 percent of the population in 2023, and by 2030, that figure is projected to reach 24 percent, according to data from the U.N.’s International Labor Organization, putting Singapore on track to be a “super-aged society” like Japan.
This demographic shift has seen Singapore’s elderly support ratio drop to just four residents aged 20 to 64 for every elderly person, compared with six in 2014.
Singapore, like the United Nations, measures total fertility rate (TFR) as the average number of births a woman is expected to have over her lifetime, based on current fertility rates for women of reproductive age. Official statistics show the city-state’s TFR stood at 0.97 last year, a decline from 1.04 in 2022.
The figure is comparable to other highly urbanized populations in East Asia—China (1.0), Japan (1.2), and Taiwan (0.87)—and remains far below the replacement rate of 2.1 needed to sustain a population.
“The slowing resident population growth and ageing of our population will lead to tightening manpower constraints in the medium term,” the ministry warned, adding that it will support career transitions into more productive and higher-paying jobs while calling for openness to foreign workers and direct investment.
Singapore’s technological edge may help soften the impact of its demographic pinch, however.
Singapore ranks second globally in robot density, after South Korea, boasting 770 industrial robots per 10,000 workers, according to the International Federation of Robotics, which lauded the city for its high ranking despite its size and small manufacturing industry.
