Singapore’s ‘career bridges’ must be built before workers lose their footing

“CAREER bridges”, one of the recommendations from Singapore’s Economic Strategy Review (ESR) this year, are timely. But the real test of plans to support those in at-risk roles is whether employers and employees can anticipate change early enough to act before disruption leads to displacement.

Artificial intelligence, automation and restructuring are not only changing how businesses operate, they are also reshaping the nature of jobs themselves. That is why the intervention needs to move upstream, beyond post-retrenchment support and into proactive workforce planning.

ADP Research’s People at Work 2026 findings highlight the scale of the challenge. In Singapore, only 15 per cent of workers strongly agree that their jobs are safe from elimination, below Asia-Pacific’s average of 18 per cent and the global figure of 22 per cent. The study found no region in which a majority of workers feel confident about their job security.