Impact of Energy Crisis on Hiring Prospects

Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked the Minister for Manpower in view of the energy crisis triggered by the Middle East conflict and its economic impact (a) whether the Government sees hiring by businesses to be more subdued; (b) what sectors are most affected; and (c) what further measures are being taken to support employment growth.

Members may refer to Deputy Prime Minister's Ministerial Statement on 7 April, which described the economic impact of the Middle East crisis.

Energy-intensive industries and outward-oriented sectors saw the most impact from increased energy costs. The crisis has also increased domestic operating costs and compounded challenges for export-oriented sectors, which are already impacted by global trade fragmentation.

While the labour market remains resilient for now, businesses have become more cautious in their hiring plans amid the heightened uncertainty.

Based on the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM's) survey, the proportion of firms intending to hire in the next three months, fell from 54.6% in February 2026 to 44.6% in March 2026. Although expectations remain below February's levels, there were early signs of stabilisation in April. This was supported by data from the Economic Development Board and the Department of Statistics, which suggest that hiring sentiments are likely to further stabilise and improve over the longer term.

All jobseekers who need assistance can tap on Workforce Singapore and SkillsFuture Singapore's suite of career matching services and programmes. Depending on the economic and job market conditions, MOM stands ready to provide further support to jobseekers, if necessary.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister for his reply. Given reports that some firms are slowing workforce expansion due to cost pressures due to the situation in the Middle East, has MOM observed any corresponding shift in firms hiring preferences between local workers and our foreign workforce? And does the Ministry intend to further calibrate Work Pass policies if Singaporeans, particularly mid-career professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs), are facing disproportionately weaker hiring process?

I thank the Member for his supplementary question. We have not seen any shifts at the moment in firms' hiring preferences. Our resident employment continued to grow in the first quarter of 2026, and we just released the report about a week ago. That growth was higher compared to the first quarter of 2025; so, there is seasonality in terms of the change involved. If you compare, you would compare the first quarter of this year, 2026, versus the first quarter of 2025; and the resident employment continued to grow.

Our Work Pass policies also ensure that Singaporeans are given a level playing field against foreign workers and we do our level best to ensure that our foreign workers here are complementary to our local Singaporean workers.

We have been continually calibrating our Work Pass policies in response to labour market conditions. For example, at Budget and the Committee of Supply this year, we announced an increase in Employment Pass and S Pass qualifying salaries that will take effect from January 2027. We also regularly review the Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS) Shortage Occupation List (SOL) to remove occupations that are no longer in shortage.

So, we always seek to strike a right balance between ensuring that our businesses have that space, the latitude to continue to grow, while ensuring that our local Singaporean workers and talent continue to also have the trajectory for them to grow as well.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Sir, we hope that there will be peaceful resolution to the Middle East conflict soon and that the Strait of Hormuz will be fully open. Notwithstanding, as the Minister has said before on several occasions, even if the conflict is over, the damage it has cost, especially to the oil and gas infrastructure, will have long-lasting impact to the world economy.

Can I further ask the Minister if he sees, as a result of the war, permanent or structural changes to the related industries that will affect the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, and that will affect investments in specific sectors within our economy and hence, job opportunities?

Also, on the reserves, whether the crisis, although it poses risks and challenges to us, whether the Minister also sees new opportunities created as a result of the crisis and worthy of us investing into it or doubling down, for example, in our oil refinery capacity, our position as an oil trading hub or even in the energy transition?

I thank Mr Liang for those two very insightful supplementary questions. I think it is premature today to conclude on the long-term structural impact related to the industry transformation, because the crisis, as we speak, is still unfolding. And if you look at the media, it evolves on a daily basis. It is also reflected in the way oil prices and stock prices have moved concurrently.

Our view is that the crisis is likely to accelerate the existing structural shifts that are already underway in the entire global economy. I am talking about supply chain diversification, digitalisation. Yesterday, we spent seven hours talking about artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and the energy transition and also energy resilience. Our sense is that this will indeed push and test the resilience of countries, of economies, but in crises like these, it also creates a lot of new opportunities for firms to transform, to diversify and to deepen their capabilities.

In the energy supply chain, we are in the entire energy ecosystem. Energy has come to the forefront because it is existential for all of us. And with the move towards a pervasive adoption of AI, there will be a need for even more energy to drive the data centres and the high compute requirements of these AI data centres.

Energy is really the new currency and it is existential for all of us.

We are also at a time in our entire civilisations' development where there is actually an abundance of new discoveries in oil and gas, and there are also a lot of accelerated developments towards green energy sources.

What we are experiencing currently are supply chain blockages, chokeholds – for instance, what we are seeing now in the Middle East in the Strait of Hormuz. Our sense is that many countries are moving, not just thinking about diversification but they are also moving into a "just in case" mode rather than "just in time". For Singapore, because we stand at a very strategic crossroad between the East and the West, I believe that given the decades of goodwill, the trust, the credibility and our reputation that we have built as a very reliable partner to many countries, this crisis will test us and if we are able to prevail, I think, it would cement, reinforce and consolidate our position as a trusted hub.

So, to that end, our Prime Minister has, in recent weeks, committed that we will not impose any export restriction. For downstream refined products, the essential fuel products – whether it is motor gas, diesel and so on – many of the countries depend on our refinery hubs to get access to that downstream supply. And our sectors here will continue to see relevance. And of course, we are equally committed to our decarbonisation targets that we have set for ourselves.

So, I believe that these are new opportunities in the energy space, in the supply chain space that we are able and we have our right to play a role. We have our competitive advantage and we will continue to build on them, including our port, our maritime hub, our connectivity, our entire logistics, moving into advanced manufacturing, financial services and healthcare.

So, I hope that gives the Member the overall opportunities available, first and foremost to Singaporeans and complementary talent who will come here to help us reinforce our position and help us to continue to grow.

Thank you, Speaker, and I thank the Minister for the response. Building on the earlier response, could the Minister share whether Singapore's workforce planning approach is being further adapted for a more persistent state of structural uncertainty, where workers may face overlapping disruptions from trade fragmentation, technological change and sectoral restructuring, which may occur concurrently over their careers rather than as isolated transitions?

I thank Dr Choo for her supplementary question. The answer is a resounding yes. I had the opportunity of reading the draft of the Economic Strategy Review report. I think it is going to be released soon. Many of the points that she covered will and have been addressed in the report, which I think will be released and shared in due time.

But based on what we have been debating over the last two days – yesterday, seven hours; the previous day, on the formation of the Skills and Workforce Development Agency, five over hours – in an over 12-hour stretch of debate, this is really what the focus is all about. About how we can prepare our workers and how we are going to invest in our workers to further reinforce their competitive advantage in dealing with longer-term structural shifts in our entire economy and in the entire workforce transformation journey.