If 2021 was the year where quitting your job was “in”, then 2026 is shaping up to be the year when staying put in your current role will be in vogue.
Back when the Great Resignation was in full swing, spurred on by the normalisation of “work-from-home” and a tight labour market, millions around the world walked out of their jobs in search of better pay, more flexibility and healthier working hours.
Both employees and employers in Singapore weren’t spared by this sweeping global trend – as more people job-hopped. Hiring was hot, increments had to be more generous to keep employees in their roles as they had more bargaining power.
Fast forward to today and that has completely shifted in favour of employers. The overarching trend now is what commentators call “job hugging”. People are holding on to their current roles longer, with resignation rates at multi-year lows and job tenure climbing steadily.
Given the weakness in the economy, alongside immense uncertainty about what Artificial Intelligence (AI) could mean as well as simmering geopolitical tensions, many are wary about leaving their current jobs.
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From Quitting En Masse To Clinging On
The Great Resignation didn’t happen because people suddenly disliked work. It was a mix of accumulated burnout, rising living costs, wage stagnation and the experience of hybrid work that made employees question old norms.
Surveys back then showed as many as 20% to 40% of workers globally were considering leaving their jobs, with many eventually taking the plunge and moving. In Singapore, as high as over 10% of employees changed their jobs within the past year in 2022.
But that moment seems to have passed now, as resignation rates have steadily fallen. Today, just 6.2% of employed residents indicated that they are looking for a new job, fewer than the 7.3% who were looking in 2024. In Q2 2025, the average monthly resignation rate hit 1.1% on a seasonally-adjusted basis, according to data from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).
That reflects what’s happening on the opposite side too; a fall-off in recruitment rates. In Singapore, the average monthly recruitment rate in the same period was just 1.6%, the lowest rate it has been in nearly 5 years – which was during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The narrative is pretty clear; workers no longer feel empowered to leave, and employers are more hesitant to recruit. With the rise of generative AI, simmering geopolitical tensions across the world and rising costs, stability matters, perhaps on both sides of the equation.
What Singapore’s Job Market Will Look Like In 2026
The backdrop matters here. Singapore’s labour market is still healthy, but it is no longer running red-hot. Unemployment remains low, retrenchments are still modest and most businesses gave pay increases last year.
Real wages even rose by 3.2% in 2024, thanks to easing inflation. But there are signs of cooling beneath the surface. Recruitment rates have dipped, which means fewer roles are being actively opened or filled.
Hiring managers are more selective, and the pace of job-switching has slowed. The data show that worker appetite for switching jobs has also fallen compared to 2024.
Indeed, a recent survey by Robert Walters discovered that four in five (80%) of Singapore professionals confessed that fears around job security are preventing them from changing jobs.
Inflation has come down from its peaks, but it hasn’t disappeared altogether and Singapore’s rising cost of living (for everything from insurance premiums to dining out and groceries) will always feel higher than the official inflation figures suggest. So even with a pay rise, most people aren’t feeling particularly flush with cash.
Add to that the fears around generative AI – with the potential impact it could have on broad swathes of the economy (as well as white-collar jobs) – and it’s easy to see why individuals are staying put.
Why Jumping Now May Be Riskier Than It Looks
There will always be good reasons to leave a job: toxic culture, career stagnation or a clear mismatch between your skills and what you want to do.
But if your motivation to leave is simply boredom or a vague sense that “it’s time to move on”, 2026 may be the worst year to act on it impulsively.
Companies are hiring more slowly and with more senior roles attracting dozens of well-qualified applicants, employers are less inclined to negotiate aggressively or give in to salary demands.
For those in their late 30s and 40s, the lack of numerous senior roles in Singapore means finding a role that suits you can be a lengthy journey that takes 12 months or even 18-24 months.
There’s also the real risk of “last in, first out” when you do move to a new company. Retrenchments are still low overall but – if a recession does hit – cuts will inevitably happen, and newer hires are usually more vulnerable to being retrenched first.
Finally, employer leverage has shifted slightly. During the Great Resignation, companies were desperate to fill roles and often threw money at candidates.
Now, with lower turnover and a more cautious workforce, employers know they don’t need to fight as hard. That means fewer sign-on incentives, much slower processes and smaller increments.
While the Great Resignation encouraged a “You Only Live Once” (YOLO) moment, it worked for a brief while as employers chased talent and increments were generous.
But Singapore in 2025, like much of the rest of the world, looks different in a post-pandemic reality – with low resignation rates, slower recruitment rates, and companies behaving more cautiously.
With extraordinary advancement of generative AI hanging over many professions, it’s also a time where individuals are reassessing their career paths in the next five to 10 years.
Job hugging doesn’t have to mean holding on for dear life. It can be a way of building something sturdier, more resilient giving us the opportunity to “reskill”.
But it will require us to get out there and network while also equipping ourselves with the necessary tools to thrive in an age where the ability to work productively with AI will likely become the norm.
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