Singapore’s training participation rate falls to 9-year low after peaking during Covid
The declines are almost across the board – for both the employed and unemployed, as well as across age groups, education levels and almost all industries
SINGAPORE’S training participation rate fell to a nine-year low of 40.7 per cent in 2024, after peaking during the Covid-19 pandemic, data from Labour Force in Singapore, an annual report by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), showed on Monday (Jan 27). (see Amendment note)
The rate hit a high of 49.9 per cent in 2021, when more people underwent training during the pandemic. It has since trended down, with last year’s rate the lowest since 2015’s 35 per cent.
The training participation rate is defined as the proportion of residents aged 15 to 64 in the labour force who engaged in some form of job-related structured training or education activities over a 12-month period that ended last June.
MOM said the decline “reflects an inclination among trainees to be fully engaged in training” by attending full-time courses, instead of working at the same time. If such trainees are neither employed nor searching for a job, they are not considered part of the labour force.
In support of this view, MOM cited a recent rise in the share of residents outside the labour force who were attending education or training. Among those aged 15 to 64, this share rose to 47 per cent in 2024, up from 42.1 per cent in 2021, reflecting increases among those aged 15 to 39.
OCBC chief economist Selena Ling suggested other factors for the decline. With Singapore’s labour market back to “near full employment” post-Covid, and the rising back-to-office trend, workers may be less interested or available to go for part-time training, she said.
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“This is not unexpected, as the opportunity cost to training may be perceived as higher as there are competing demands from work and leisure activities, such as travel,” she said.
Still, the decline to 40.7 per cent should be interpreted as “normalisation” from Covid highs, she added.
Lower across the board
Training participation rates declined across the board last year – for both the employed and unemployed, as well as across age groups and almost all education levels and industries.
Some 42 per cent of employed residents took part in training, down from 44.6 per cent in 2023. For unemployed residents, participation levels fell 0.4 percentage point to 33.7 per cent.
Still, training participation levels are higher than 10 years ago, back when they were 36.5 per cent for employed residents and 22.2 per cent for unemployed ones.
Across age groups, training participation declined more among those aged 30 to 39, as well as 50 to 64.
“Over the year, more non-trainees in both age groups indicated that they did not know what skills to pick up or improve on, or that they did not consider the need to attend training,” said MOM.
Training participation declined across all educational groups, except those whose highest qualification was from secondary school.
As for occupational groups, managers and administrators saw the largest decline of 4.3 percentage points, to 47.2 per cent – though their participation rate remained the second highest, after professionals.
Only service and sales workers saw an increase in participation rates to 33.2 per cent, from 29.9 per cent in 2023.
MOM said this rise was due partly to the rollout of the progressive wage model for the retail trade and food services sectors. The model is designed to increase wages through skills training.
There was also a broad-based decline in the training participation rate across nearly all industries. The exceptions were information and communications – where the rate rose to 54.3 per cent, from 43.7 per cent before – as well as construction.
The challenge going forward, said OCBC’s Ling, will be to encourage Singaporeans, especially those above 40, to upskill or reskill “in the face of rapidly changing skill sets” amid the rise of artificial intelligence and other disruptive forces, “rather than wait until displacement before training”.
“Since it may be an uphill challenge, policymakers may endeavour to do more since it’s key to job security in an ageing population,” she added.
Maybank economist Brian Lee believes more measures could be introduced in the upcoming Budget to boost training rates.
For instance, more comprehensive programmes and career guidance may be needed for younger Singaporeans early in their careers, he said, adding that the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme currently for older workers may be extended to them.
“With companies’ needs rapidly evolving amid a faster pace of technological changes, these groups of workers need support to sharpen and tailor their skills learnt from school, based on their work requirements,” he said.
Unemployment
MOM’s report covered other indicators such as job mobility, income and unemployment, some of which were previously detailed in an advance release last November.
Unemployment rates remained low for both professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) as well as non-PMETs.
For PMETs, the rate inched up slightly to 2.7 per cent in 2024, from 2.4 per cent the year before. The rate for non-PMETs dipped to 3.4 per cent, from 3.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, the long-term unemployment rate for PMETs, defined as those who have been unemployed for 25 weeks or more, went up to 0.7 per cent – the highest in three years, from 0.4 per cent in 2023.
While most industries saw an uptick in the long-term unemployment rate, the rates remained at around or lower than their pre-pandemic levels, MOM noted.
The long-term unemployment rate was highest in the information and communications industry at 1.1 per cent, up from 0.7 per cent in 2023.
This was followed by 1 per cent for the financial and insurance services industry, up from 0.6 per cent in 2023.
Only the transportation and storage industry reported a fall in the long-term unemployment rate – to 0.2 per cent from 0.5 per cent the year before.
Amendment note: An earlier version of this story said Singapore’s training participation rate is at an eight-year low. It should have been a nine-year low. We are sorry for the error.
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