Shorter working hours, better upward income mobility: 5 trends among S’pore-based workers in 2024

SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) announced the preliminary findings of its annual survey of Singapore’s resident workforce on 28 November.

2024 figures show that real income growth, which affects inflation, has moved out of the negative range seen in 2023.

However, Singapore’s aging population has also affected the composition of its workforce; One of the main concerns is the decreasing number of young people to support the growing number of people aged 65 and over.

Here are five other key trends to glean from the report.

Working hours continued to fall

In 2024, working residents, including citizens and permanent residents, worked an average of 41.6 hours per week.

That’s five hours less than in 2010, when workers worked an average of 46.6 hours per week.

MOM stated in its report that this decline is part of a long-term trend also observed in other developed countries, resulting mainly from reduced working hours of full-time workers.

“Contributing factors include the transition to a more regular working week, reducing excessive working hours and increasing productivity through training, technology and flexible working arrangements,” the ministry said.

MOM added that the proportion of full-time employed residents, who typically work more than 48 hours per week, continues to decline from 17.3 percent in 2023 and 28.4 percent in 2014 to 16.9 percent in 2024.

The persistent decline in average weekly normal working hours among full-time workers has been seen among both professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) and non-PMETs, the ministry said.

“While non-PMETs still work longer hours than PMETs, non-PMETs have experienced a greater reduction in normal weekly working hours than PMETs over the past 10 years.”

Better upward income mobility

In the post-Covid-19 period between 2021 and 2024, the majority of employees recorded better income growth compared to the pre-pandemic period between 2016 and 2019.

Post-pandemic, three out of five employees experienced an income increase of at least 5 percent per year; This is an increase from two in five workers in the pre-Covid-19 period.

Moreover, generally speaking, the share of workers with annual income growth of at least 5 percent was higher in lower-income groups.