SINGAPORE – There will be no hard cap on how long a migrant worker can work here from July 1, 2025, in a move that is set to reshape Singapore’s foreign workforce for years to come.
Currently, work permit holders can be employed here for a limit of 14 to 26 years. This limit will be removed, said Manpower Minister Tan See Leng in Parliament on March 6. The change does not apply to migrant domestic workers, who come under a slightly different regime.
This is among several changes made to the work permit framework to enable local firms to draw and retain seasoned rank-and-file workers that complement other efforts to help businesses transform, in hopes of creating more and better jobs for Singaporeans.
Speaking during the debate on the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) budget, Dr Tan said the capped employment period for work permit holders meant firms had to let go of experienced people who could be at prime working age.
The maximum employment age for these workers will also be raised from 60 to 63 to align with the local retirement age. This means that firms can employ work permit holders until they turn 63.
In tandem, the age limit for new work permit applications will now be pegged to two years below the new maximum age, or 61 years old.
Currently, non-Malaysian work permit applicants must be aged below 50, and Malaysian applicants, below 58.
“With these changes, employers can retain experienced workers who are still able to contribute,” Dr Tan added.
He noted that the number of work permit holders is at an all-time high, 17 per cent above pre-Covid-19 levels.
Separately, an existing list of nine occupations for which employers in services and manufacturing can hire rank-and-file workers hailing from a wider range of locations under a work permit will also be expanded from Sept 1, 2025.
Heavy vehicle drivers and a range of manufacturing operator roles will be added to the Non-Traditional Sources (NTS) Occupation List.
Cooks in general will come under the list, too, rather than cooks in only Indian restaurants as stipulated now.
The list was rolled out in September 2023 in a bid to raise the quality bar for S Pass holders by allowing services and manufacturing employers more options in hiring non-professional, managerial, executive and technical (PMET) workers on work permits, rather than S Passes.
“As (NTS Occupation List) workers must be paid at least $2,000, this will not undermine efforts to uplift locals in these occupations,” Dr Tan said.
They must also account for 8 per cent or lower of the employer’s total headcount, excluding Employment Pass (EP) holders.
Currently, the NTS economies are Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Bhutan, Cambodia and Laos will join the fold from June 1, 2025, which Dr Tan said will allow firms to build a more skilled and resilient workforce.
Typically, employers in the services and manufacturing sectors hire work permit holders only from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan.
Dr Tan also announced tweaks to the Manpower for Strategic Economic Priorities scheme.
Launched in December 2022, the scheme lets firms deemed to advance Singapore’s key economic priorities temporarily hire slightly more foreign workers beyond prevailing S Pass and work permit quotas for their industry.
Starting May 1, 2025, the support will last for three years at a time upon approval, instead of two years.
There will also be more ways to meet the two main qualifying conditions of the scheme.
For instance, firms can choose to commit to sending locals on overseas exposure or leadership programmes to be granted the additional foreign worker quota, aside from pledging to hire or enrolling more locals in training.
More programmes will count towards eligibility for the scheme, too.
Dr Tan said the changes to the work permit regime stem from recommendations made by the Alliance for Action on Business Competitiveness in a report released in November 2024.
The moves are meant to ensure businesses hire higher-skilled but non-PMET workers, even as they reduce overall reliance on work permit holders through raising productivity and redesigning jobs for locals, he said.
“We are actively reviewing our work permit framework to drive transformation, while nuancing it to support different needs as our workforce changes, and updates will be shared in due course,” he added.
However, Dr Tan said the Government is still studying the alliance’s recommendation to allow cross-deployment of foreign workers across sectors with industry partners, and will provide more updates when ready.
“It is a complex issue – we need to balance the potential efficiencies against the risk of circumvention of our work pass controls.”
He also said the Government will closely study allocating a higher foreign workforce quota to firms with inclusive employment practices, a suggestion made by MPs including Non-Constituency MP Hazel Poa of the Progress Singapore Party and Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim (Chua Chu Kang GRC).
On the S Pass front, the last of a three-step increase to the pass’ qualifying salary and levy announced in 2022 will apply to new applications from Sept 1, 2025, and for renewals of passes expiring from a year later.
The S Pass minimum qualifying salary will tick up from $3,150 to $3,300 for all sectors except for financial services, and continue to increase progressively with age to up to $4,800 for candidates in their mid-40s.
The financial services sector will continue to have a higher S Pass qualifying salary, given its higher wage norms.
For the sector, the S Pass minimum qualifying salary will be raised from $3,650 to $3,800. The qualifying salary will increase progressively to $5,650 for candidates in their mid-40s.
Dr Tan said: “In the light of businesses’ cost challenges, we have moderated the increase.”
The S Pass levy rate will also be standardised at $650 for all S Pass holders.
There will, however, be no further changes to the EP qualifying salary, which was just raised on Jan 1 for new applications and will increase for passes that expire starting from a year later.
Dr Tan also announced an Enterprise Workforce Transformation Package with more than $400 million set aside to help firms kick-start transformation efforts, especially through job redesign.
The package includes the SkillsFuture Workforce Development Grant, which Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced in his Budget statement on Feb 18.
The grant, which will be rolled out in phases in 2026, ties together and beefs up a wide range of existing transformation schemes under a single application channel – the Business Grants Portal.
Additionally, firms can tap “programme partners” for advice on every step of the workforce transformation process.
Two other key measures under this package involve greater support for job redesign under the grant and a redesigned SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit.
Separately, MOM has formed a Tripartite Workgroup on Human Capital Capability Development together with the National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore National Employers Federation.
The workgroup, which had its first meeting in February, aims to find ways to strengthen human resources practices and introduce national standards to measure human capital outcomes, among other objectives.
Besides spurring transformation, Dr Tan said more help will be given to foster inclusive and safe workplaces and for Singaporeans to build meaningful and resilient careers amid economic changes.
Together, these three planks are meant to unlock productivity-driven economic growth for the long haul, even amid an ageing population, slowing resident workforce growth and intensifying global competition, he said.
While foreign workers help Singapore stay competitive and blunt the decline in the number of residents who can socially support the elderly here, there “are limits to growing through numbers”, he added.
Still, Dr Tan said businesses have cited manpower constraints as a key challenge.
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Addressing concerns raised by Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC) on scepticism over the need for foreign talent, Dr Tan acknowledged: “That scepticism is natural – when we see a foreigner, we think, ‘they are taking a job a local could have had’.
“What is harder to see is that, without access to foreigners, the company and its jobs may not even be in Singapore to begin with.”
Remaining open to foreign talent is not a zero-sum game – it is not as though one more job is opened up to locals for each foreigner who is removed, he said.
Over the last decade, the number of EP and S Pass holders grew by 38,000, but resident PMETs grew by 382,000, he noted. Residents refer to Singaporeans and permanent residents.
Addressing Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai, Dr Tan said one in three of the increase in resident PMETs came from non-PMETs upgrading to higher-skilled PMET roles, with residents in their 30s to 50s forming the majority.
“Our upskilling programmes, our investments in our local non-PMETs to upgrade to PMETs have borne fruit.”
In the higher-value sectors of financial and insurance services, professional services, and information and communications, EP and S Pass holders increased by 18,000 over the same period. Resident PMETs increased by 172,000 in the meantime.
Dr Tan also said there were three to six resident PMETs for each EP or S Pass holder in those sectors as at 2024.
“The same story holds, even if one compares only Singapore citizens, or even local-born Singapore citizens, to EP and S Pass holders,” he said.
He noted that resident data largely mirrors citizen data, because Singapore citizens have consistently made up about 84 per cent of the resident workforce.
“We should never develop a ‘Singaporean only’ mentality because this would deprive us of talent needed to anchor global businesses that benefit Singaporeans,” he said.
Asia News Network/The Straits Times
Currently, work permit holders can be employed here for a limit of 14 to 26 years. This limit will be removed, said Manpower Minister Tan See Leng in Parliament on March 6. The change does not apply to migrant domestic workers, who come under a slightly different regime.
This is among several changes made to the work permit framework to enable local firms to draw and retain seasoned rank-and-file workers that complement other efforts to help businesses transform, in hopes of creating more and better jobs for Singaporeans.
Speaking during the debate on the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) budget, Dr Tan said the capped employment period for work permit holders meant firms had to let go of experienced people who could be at prime working age.
The maximum employment age for these workers will also be raised from 60 to 63 to align with the local retirement age. This means that firms can employ work permit holders until they turn 63.
In tandem, the age limit for new work permit applications will now be pegged to two years below the new maximum age, or 61 years old.
Currently, non-Malaysian work permit applicants must be aged below 50, and Malaysian applicants, below 58.
“With these changes, employers can retain experienced workers who are still able to contribute,” Dr Tan added.
He noted that the number of work permit holders is at an all-time high, 17 per cent above pre-Covid-19 levels.
Separately, an existing list of nine occupations for which employers in services and manufacturing can hire rank-and-file workers hailing from a wider range of locations under a work permit will also be expanded from Sept 1, 2025.
Heavy vehicle drivers and a range of manufacturing operator roles will be added to the Non-Traditional Sources (NTS) Occupation List.
Cooks in general will come under the list, too, rather than cooks in only Indian restaurants as stipulated now.
The list was rolled out in September 2023 in a bid to raise the quality bar for S Pass holders by allowing services and manufacturing employers more options in hiring non-professional, managerial, executive and technical (PMET) workers on work permits, rather than S Passes.
“As (NTS Occupation List) workers must be paid at least $2,000, this will not undermine efforts to uplift locals in these occupations,” Dr Tan said.
They must also account for 8 per cent or lower of the employer’s total headcount, excluding Employment Pass (EP) holders.
Currently, the NTS economies are Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Bhutan, Cambodia and Laos will join the fold from June 1, 2025, which Dr Tan said will allow firms to build a more skilled and resilient workforce.
Typically, employers in the services and manufacturing sectors hire work permit holders only from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan.
Dr Tan also announced tweaks to the Manpower for Strategic Economic Priorities scheme.
Launched in December 2022, the scheme lets firms deemed to advance Singapore’s key economic priorities temporarily hire slightly more foreign workers beyond prevailing S Pass and work permit quotas for their industry.
Starting May 1, 2025, the support will last for three years at a time upon approval, instead of two years.
There will also be more ways to meet the two main qualifying conditions of the scheme.
For instance, firms can choose to commit to sending locals on overseas exposure or leadership programmes to be granted the additional foreign worker quota, aside from pledging to hire or enrolling more locals in training.
More programmes will count towards eligibility for the scheme, too.
Dr Tan said the changes to the work permit regime stem from recommendations made by the Alliance for Action on Business Competitiveness in a report released in November 2024.
The moves are meant to ensure businesses hire higher-skilled but non-PMET workers, even as they reduce overall reliance on work permit holders through raising productivity and redesigning jobs for locals, he said.
“We are actively reviewing our work permit framework to drive transformation, while nuancing it to support different needs as our workforce changes, and updates will be shared in due course,” he added.
However, Dr Tan said the Government is still studying the alliance’s recommendation to allow cross-deployment of foreign workers across sectors with industry partners, and will provide more updates when ready.
“It is a complex issue – we need to balance the potential efficiencies against the risk of circumvention of our work pass controls.”
He also said the Government will closely study allocating a higher foreign workforce quota to firms with inclusive employment practices, a suggestion made by MPs including Non-Constituency MP Hazel Poa of the Progress Singapore Party and Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim (Chua Chu Kang GRC).
On the S Pass front, the last of a three-step increase to the pass’ qualifying salary and levy announced in 2022 will apply to new applications from Sept 1, 2025, and for renewals of passes expiring from a year later.
The S Pass minimum qualifying salary will tick up from $3,150 to $3,300 for all sectors except for financial services, and continue to increase progressively with age to up to $4,800 for candidates in their mid-40s.
The financial services sector will continue to have a higher S Pass qualifying salary, given its higher wage norms.
For the sector, the S Pass minimum qualifying salary will be raised from $3,650 to $3,800. The qualifying salary will increase progressively to $5,650 for candidates in their mid-40s.
Dr Tan said: “In the light of businesses’ cost challenges, we have moderated the increase.”
The S Pass levy rate will also be standardised at $650 for all S Pass holders.
There will, however, be no further changes to the EP qualifying salary, which was just raised on Jan 1 for new applications and will increase for passes that expire starting from a year later.
Dr Tan also announced an Enterprise Workforce Transformation Package with more than $400 million set aside to help firms kick-start transformation efforts, especially through job redesign.
The package includes the SkillsFuture Workforce Development Grant, which Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced in his Budget statement on Feb 18.
The grant, which will be rolled out in phases in 2026, ties together and beefs up a wide range of existing transformation schemes under a single application channel – the Business Grants Portal.
Additionally, firms can tap “programme partners” for advice on every step of the workforce transformation process.
Two other key measures under this package involve greater support for job redesign under the grant and a redesigned SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit.
Separately, MOM has formed a Tripartite Workgroup on Human Capital Capability Development together with the National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore National Employers Federation.
The workgroup, which had its first meeting in February, aims to find ways to strengthen human resources practices and introduce national standards to measure human capital outcomes, among other objectives.
Besides spurring transformation, Dr Tan said more help will be given to foster inclusive and safe workplaces and for Singaporeans to build meaningful and resilient careers amid economic changes.
Together, these three planks are meant to unlock productivity-driven economic growth for the long haul, even amid an ageing population, slowing resident workforce growth and intensifying global competition, he said.
While foreign workers help Singapore stay competitive and blunt the decline in the number of residents who can socially support the elderly here, there “are limits to growing through numbers”, he added.
Still, Dr Tan said businesses have cited manpower constraints as a key challenge.
Click to Watch on Youtube
Addressing concerns raised by Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC) on scepticism over the need for foreign talent, Dr Tan acknowledged: “That scepticism is natural – when we see a foreigner, we think, ‘they are taking a job a local could have had’.
“What is harder to see is that, without access to foreigners, the company and its jobs may not even be in Singapore to begin with.”
Remaining open to foreign talent is not a zero-sum game – it is not as though one more job is opened up to locals for each foreigner who is removed, he said.
Over the last decade, the number of EP and S Pass holders grew by 38,000, but resident PMETs grew by 382,000, he noted. Residents refer to Singaporeans and permanent residents.
Addressing Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai, Dr Tan said one in three of the increase in resident PMETs came from non-PMETs upgrading to higher-skilled PMET roles, with residents in their 30s to 50s forming the majority.
“Our upskilling programmes, our investments in our local non-PMETs to upgrade to PMETs have borne fruit.”
In the higher-value sectors of financial and insurance services, professional services, and information and communications, EP and S Pass holders increased by 18,000 over the same period. Resident PMETs increased by 172,000 in the meantime.
Dr Tan also said there were three to six resident PMETs for each EP or S Pass holder in those sectors as at 2024.
“The same story holds, even if one compares only Singapore citizens, or even local-born Singapore citizens, to EP and S Pass holders,” he said.
He noted that resident data largely mirrors citizen data, because Singapore citizens have consistently made up about 84 per cent of the resident workforce.
“We should never develop a ‘Singaporean only’ mentality because this would deprive us of talent needed to anchor global businesses that benefit Singaporeans,” he said.
Asia News Network/The Straits Times
