{"id":9523,"date":"2025-12-07T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T06:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/?p=9523"},"modified":"2025-12-07T14:58:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T06:58:40","slug":"what-is-the-average-working-hours-in-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/what-is-the-average-working-hours-in-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is The Average Working Hours In Singapore For Full-Time And Part-Time Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Singapore employees are often cited as working some of the longest hours in the world. Looking at our GDP per capita, which is one of the highest in the world, working long hours and stressful jobs may not be a big surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Singapore\u2019s Employment Act, working hours are regulated – to protect certain groups of employees. The Employment Act defines \u201chours of work\u201d as\u00a0the time during which an employee is at the employer\u2019s disposal and is not free to dispose of his or her own time and movements exclusive of any intervals allowed for rest and meals<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeping track of the working hours in Singapore is also important as it is an input to measure economic indicators in Singapore, such as productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Also: Singapore Employment Act: 10 Statutory Requirements To Pay Employees<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is The Average Working Hours In Singapore?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Latest MOM statistics in 2025 report that the “average usual hours worked per week” fell to 41.4 hours. This trend is not just in the past year, but the average weekly hours have been consistently dipping for some time now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to MOM, this decline in hours worked is a long-term trend also observed in other advanced economies. Factors that contribute to this include the shift to a more regular workweek,\u00a0decreased excessive work hours,\u00a0and improved efficiency through training, technology, and flexible work arrangements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the coming years and decades, AI may continue to impact the number hours employees have to work each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This downtrend in weekly hours worked in Singapore has also coincided with an uptrend in median salaries in Singapore<\/a>. While this means employees are working fewer hours but earning more, we should also note that MOM’s data does not capture unpaid overtime hours worked by executives and management staff – who are normally not paid for working overtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Industry Works The Most Hours In Singapore?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

MOM also publishes the average actual working hours on an industry level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry<\/strong><\/td>2Q
2025<\/strong><\/td>		2024<\/strong><\/td>2023<\/strong><\/td>2022<\/strong><\/td>2021<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
TOTAL<\/strong><\/td>43.2<\/strong><\/td>43.3<\/strong><\/td>43.6<\/strong><\/td>44.1<\/strong><\/td>44.2<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Manufacturing<\/td>45.5<\/td>45.9<\/td>46.5<\/td>47.5<\/td>47.8<\/td><\/tr>
Construction <\/td>47.6<\/td>47.8<\/td>48.6<\/td>49.9<\/td>49.8<\/td><\/tr>
Wholesale & Retail Trade<\/td>41.7<\/td>41.3<\/td>41.4<\/td>42.2<\/td>42.4<\/td><\/tr>
Transportation & Storage<\/td>43.8<\/td>43.8<\/td>44.3<\/td>45.2<\/td>45.4<\/td><\/tr>
Accommodation<\/td>44.8<\/td>45.3<\/td>45.2<\/td>45.1<\/td>44.7<\/td><\/tr>
Food & Beverage Services<\/td>39.5<\/td>39.4<\/td>39.4<\/td>39.7<\/td>39.7<\/td><\/tr>
Information & Communications <\/td>40.9<\/td>40.7<\/td>40.6<\/td>40.9<\/td>41.4<\/td><\/tr>
Financial & Insurance Services<\/td>40.8<\/td>40.6<\/td>40.8<\/td>41.3<\/td>41.7<\/td><\/tr>
Real Estate Services<\/td>43.4<\/td>43.4<\/td>43.2<\/td>43.2<\/td>43.4<\/td><\/tr>
Professional Services<\/td>42.4<\/td>42.7<\/td>42.3<\/td>42.6<\/td>42.4<\/td><\/tr>
Administrative & Support Services<\/td>42.4<\/td>43.1<\/td>43.7<\/td>43.6<\/td>44.8<\/td><\/tr>
Public Administration & Education<\/td>41.1<\/td>41.2<\/td>41.4<\/td>41.3<\/td>41.4<\/td><\/tr>
Health & Social Services<\/td>41.8<\/td>42.1<\/td>42.0<\/td>42.3<\/td>42.8<\/td><\/tr>
Others (includes Agriculture,
Fishing, Quarrying, Utilities and Sewerage & Waste Management<\/td>		44.8<\/td>44.9<\/td>44.4<\/td>45.1<\/td>45.2<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to the statistics, employees in the Food & Beverage Services, Information & Communications, and Financial & Insurance Services industries worked the least number of hours – under 41 hours per week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees in Manufacturing, Construction, Accommodation, Professional Services, Administrative & Support Services, Public Administration & Education, Health & Social Services, and Others all saw fewer working hours compared to 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, employees working in the Construction industry worked the most by far \u2013 at 47.6 hours per week. Other industries that have relatively high working hours include Manufacturing at 45.5 hours and Accommodation at 44.8 hours. Nevertheless, these industries had slightly fewer working hours compared to 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees in the Wholesale & Retail trade, Food & Beverage, Information & Communications, and Financial & Insurance Services industries worked slightly more hours compared to 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those wondering what this classification is based on, given that there are \u201cOthers\u201d and obviously some missing ones, we can refer to the SSIC Code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Also: What is Singapore Standard Industrial Classification (SSIC) Code And Why It Matters?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Many Hours Can Employees Work (According To The Employment Act)?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Under Part 4 of the Employment Act<\/a>, employees cannot be required to work for \u201cmore than 6 consecutive hours without a period of leisure\u201d and for \u201cmore than 8 hours in one day or more than 44 hours in one week\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are certain provisions to provide greater flexibility as well. For example, employees can work up to 9 hours in one day if they work less on another day, but only up to the limit of 44 hours in one week. Employees can also work up to 48 hours per week, provided that they do not work more than 9 hours in one day and more than 88 hours in a two week period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As \u201cHours of work\u201d falls under Part 4 of the Employment Act, we should also note that it only applies to certain groups of employees, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1 to workmen who are paid a salary not exceeding $4,500 a month (excluding other types of payments and bonuses)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2 every employee (other than workmen or a person employed in a managerial or executive position) who receives a salary not exceeding $2,600 a month (excluding other types of payments and bonuses)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Also: Overtime Pay; Work Hours; Rest Days: Majority Of White-Collar Workers Are Not Protected Under Part IV Of The Employment Act<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part-Time Workers Are Defined By Their Hours Of Work<\/strong> Per Week<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Employment Act also defines part-time employees as \u201can employee who is required under his or her contract of service<\/a> with an employer to work for less than 35 hours per week\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this definition, it also means that full-time employment refers to employees with normal working hours that is at least 35 hours per week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Also: Part-Time Employment Regulations: 10 Things To Know When Hiring A Part-Timer<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Accurate Is The Statistics On Hours Worked Per Week?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

According to MOM, the statistics on hours worked is compiled from its biennial Conditions of Employment Survey. This means it is self-reported by employers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, as mentioned above, some of these statistics also do not take into consideration unpaid overtime hours worked by executives and management staff as they are normally not paid for working overtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the number of hours worked in singapore is reducing over the years, Singapore employees still work relatively long hours compared other countries. A simple Google search for \u201cwhich countries work the longest hours\u201d will reveal stats pointing to Singapore’s long working hours. Even if Singapore is missing from any particular reports, our 43.2 hours average work week will rank quite high on many international lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Also: 17 Types of Leaves Offered By Singapore Companies (Statutory And Non-Statutory)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singapore employees have been working fewer hours over the years.\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":9525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[95],"tags":[1522,127,374,343,1523,1521],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Is The Average Working Hours In Singapore For Full-Time And Part-Time Employees | DollarsAndSense Business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What the average working hours are in Singapore and protection of working hours under Singapore\u2019s Employment Act.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/what-is-the-average-working-hours-in-singapore\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Is The Average Working Hours In Singapore For Full-Time And Part-Time Employees | DollarsAndSense Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What the average working hours are in Singapore and protection of working hours under Singapore\u2019s Employment Act.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/what-is-the-average-working-hours-in-singapore\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"DollarsAndSense Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-07T06:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-07T06:58:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Working-hours-in-Singapore.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/\",\"name\":\"DollarsAndSense Business\",\"description\":\"Helping Real People Build Real Businesses\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/what-is-the-average-working-hours-in-singapore\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Working-hours-in-Singapore.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Working-hours-in-Singapore.jpg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1333,\"caption\":\"Average working hours in Singapore\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/what-is-the-average-working-hours-in-singapore\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/what-is-the-average-working-hours-in-singapore\/\",\"name\":\"What Is The Average Working Hours In Singapore For Full-Time And Part-Time Employees | DollarsAndSense Business\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/what-is-the-average-working-hours-in-singapore\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-07T06:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-07T06:58:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/#\/schema\/person\/c6937acb6f1f669cc952b38ad623d277\"},\"description\":\"What the average working hours are in Singapore and protection of working hours under Singapore\\u2019s Employment Act.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/what-is-the-average-working-hours-in-singapore\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/what-is-the-average-working-hours-in-singapore\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/what-is-the-average-working-hours-in-singapore\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"item\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/\",\"name\":\"Home\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"item\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/what-is-the-average-working-hours-in-singapore\/#webpage\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/#\/schema\/person\/c6937acb6f1f669cc952b38ad623d277\",\"name\":\"Dinesh Dayani\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/author\/dineshdayani\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9523"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14172,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9523\/revisions\/14172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}