According to the Singapore Public Sector Outcomes Review (SPOR) published by the Ministry of Finance, Singapore has made strides in key areas of national interest, namely:
Early years
The Government has invested significantly in the early childhood sector to enhance access to affordable and quality preschools. To meet the increasing demand for full-day preschool, the number of full-day preschool places was increased to over 200,000 in 2023.
The Government is on track for 80% of preschoolers to have a place in a government-supported preschool by around 2025.
Preschool education has become more affordable. Full-day childcare monthly fee caps for AOP and POP preschools were lowered in 2023 and will be further lowered in 2025.
Schooling years
Our primary, secondary and post-secondary students have more pathways and opportunities to pursue their strengths and interests, and be better prepared for the future.
In 2023, 97% of students from the latest Primary 1 cohort progressed to post-secondary programmes. For students from the lowest socio-economic status quintile, this was 94%.
Good jobs, lifelong learning, with strong social safety nets
The labour market remains resilient.
The employment rate of residents aged 25 to 64 in 2023 remained high at 82.6%, compared to the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level of 80.8% in 2019.
Retrenchments rose in 2023, mainly due to business reorganisation or restructuring. While 9,990 residents were laid off in 2023, at least three in five retrenched residents were able to secure a new job within six months post-retrenchment.
Resident unemployment and long-term unemployment rates remained low at 2.7% and 0.7% respectively.
In 2023, newly created positions made up 47.3% of job openings, mainly arising from business expansion. A good proportion (56.3%) of these newly created positions were for professional, managerial, executive, and technical (PMET) positions.
Overall, the share of employed residents in PMET jobs rose from 58.4% in 2019 to 62.6% in 2023. The proportion of PMETs continued to increase in growth sectors such as Information & Communications and Financial & Insurance Services.
Lifelong learning
In 2023, mid-career Singaporeans aged 40 and above formed around 39% of trainees supported under SkillsFuture. They received subsidies that covered up to an additional 20% of course fees (above the 50% to 70% baseline course fee funding) in recognition of the higher opportunity cost faced in undertaking training.
From 1 May 2024, under the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme, they received a SkillsFuture Credit top-up of $4,000 to further defray training fees for programmes with better employability outcomes.
Empowering Singaporeans to seize opportunities
The Career Conversion Programmes (CCP) and SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme (SCTP) help them mid-career individuals pivot towards new job roles with longer-term growth prospects.
Between 2019 and 2023, close to 36,000 workers (around 50% of whom are individuals aged 40 and above) benefitted from the CCP.
Meanwhile, about 5,000 trainees participated in the SCTP since its launch in April 2022 to 2023.
From April 2025, involuntarily unemployed jobseekers will be supported through the new SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support scheme. This provides temporary financial support while they undergo skills training, career coaching, and job matching services as they actively look for a job that fits their skills and aspirations.
Improving wages while further reducing wage gaps
Lower-wage workers are supported through the Progressive Wage Model (PWM).
To keep pace with rising local wages and ensure lower-wage workers continue to be uplifted alongside the rest of Singapore, we raised the Local Qualifying Salary (LQS) from $1,400 to $1,600 in July 2024.
Collectively, the PWM, LQS, and Progressive Wage Mark accreditation scheme benefitted up to nine in 10 full-time lower-wage workers.
In addition, lower-wage workers are supported by the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) scheme and Workfare Skills Support scheme.
The WIS was enhanced in 2023 to increase the qualifying income cap to $2,500 a month and the maximum annual payout to $4,200.
In 2023, 388,000 lower-wage employees benefitted from around $914 million in WIS disbursements.
Strengthening support for marriage and family formation
To help parents manage work and caregiving needs, especially at the infancy stage, the Government announced a new Government-Paid Shared Parental Leave (SPL) scheme that will provide 10 additional weeks of paid parental leave, on top of maternity and paternity leave.
The new SPL will be implemented in two phases, starting with six weeks from 1 April 2025 and increasing to 10 weeks from 1 April 2026.
Government-Paid Paternity Leave for eligible working fathers has been doubled from two to four weeks, with the additional two weeks provided on a voluntary basis since 1 Jan 2024.
Unpaid Infant Care Leave to 12 days per parent per year has also been doubled in their child’s first two years.
All Singapore Citizen newborns qualify for the MediSave Grant for Newborns of $4,000. A CPF MediSave account will be opened for each newborn, and the grant will be credited automatically.
With the BBS enhancements and MediSave Grant for Newborns, parents can receive up to $24,000 for their firstborn, and up to $37,000 for subsequent children.
For education, a Singaporean child can receive around $200,000 in education subsidies from preschool through secondary school.
For healthcare, the same child can receive subsidies of up to 80% at public healthcare institutions as well as fully-subsidised nationally-recommended childhood vaccinations and developmental screenings at polyclinics and General Practitioner clinics under the Community Health Assist Scheme.
Fostering a Singapore Made For Families
The Made For Families initiative was launched in 2020 to encourage individuals, businesses, and community groups to contribute towards a culture that values and puts families first, and to assure families of support from the Government and society at large.
