Singapore retrenchment and wrongful dismissal claims: the official data

This page compiles the Ministry of Manpower's own published numbers on retrenchments and employment claims, with nothing added or estimated. Retrenchment counts come from the Ministry of Manpower's quarterly Labour Market Report and Labour Market Advance Release; claim outcomes come from the Employment Standards Report 2025, published jointly by the Ministry of Manpower and the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM). Every figure below is dated and sourced so you can check it yourself.

Retrenchments in 2026, quarter by quarter

Retrenchments in Singapore rose for two quarters in a row. The Ministry of Manpower's Labour Market Report for the first quarter of 2026 recorded 3,830 retrenched workers, up from 3,690 in the last quarter of 2025. The increase was concentrated in Manufacturing, Financial Services and Professional Services, driven mainly by business reorganisation (73.8% of cases) rather than cost-cutting (9.3%). Even so, the incidence stayed low: 1.6 retrenched per 1,000 employees, below the 2014-2019 non-recessionary average of 1.7.

The second quarter went further. The Ministry of Manpower's Labour Market Advance Release for Q2 2026 recorded 4,500 retrenchments, a 17.5% rise on Q1, and the incidence climbed to 1.9 per 1,000 employees. HRM Asia, reporting on the same MOM release, called it the highest quarterly retrenchment count in more than five years, the most since Q4 2020, when 5,640 employees lost their jobs.

Wrongful dismissal claims: how many, and what happens to them

The Ministry of Manpower and TADM's Employment Standards Report 2025, the most recent edition available, recorded 2,168 wrongful dismissal claims for the year, an incidence of 0.57 claims per 1,000 employees, up from 0.46 in 2024. That was part of a wider rise: the overall incidence of employment claims and appeals increased from 3.12 to 3.44 per 1,000 employees, and 13,083 employment claims and appeals were lodged with the Ministry of Manpower and TADM in 2025 in total, most of them (10,801) salary claims rather than dismissal claims.

Filing a wrongful dismissal claim in Singapore does not usually mean a long fight through the courts. 67% of the 2025 claims were resolved at TADM mediation, and 87% of wrongful dismissal claims were concluded at TADM within 2 months, up from 86% in 2024. The remaining 33% were referred to the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT) for adjudication.

Here is the finding worth sitting with before you assume mediation means a payout: of the cases that WERE resolved at TADM, 65% ended with the employer found to have met its contractual or statutory obligations, or the claim withdrawn after mediation. Only the remaining 35% involved some form of employer settlement, a goodwill payment, letting the employee resign on their own terms, or clearing up a miscommunication. Across all 2025 wrongful dismissal claims, employers paid out about $2.71 million in total, up from $2.14 million in 2024.

For what wrongful dismissal actually covers under the Employment Act, and the deadlines that apply, see wrongful dismissal in Singapore. If you are trying to work out whether your situation belongs at TADM mediation or the ECT, and what each stage involves, see the employment dispute process and the Employment Claims Tribunals.

Salary claims: the bigger number

Salary claims dwarf wrongful dismissal claims in volume: 10,801 in 2025 against 2,168 for wrongful dismissal. The outcomes look different too. 88% of salary claims lodged in 2025 were resolved at TADM mediation, slightly lower than 90% in 2024, with the remaining 12% referred to the ECT. 92% of employees who lodged a salary claim fully recovered their salary through TADM and the ECT, slightly lower than 94% in 2024. In total, employees recovered $22 million through salary claims in 2025, up from $19 million in 2024.

If unpaid salary, an unpaid bonus, or an owed commission is your situation rather than a dismissal, salary claims in Singapore covers the filing process and time limits.

Why are claims rising?

The Ministry of Manpower and TADM's own explanation for the increase, published alongside the 2025 figures, is straightforward. Quoted exactly, punctuation included:

"the increase is more likely driven by labour market conditions amid business reorganisation and restructuring, rather than a broad-based deterioration of labour employment standards. The incidence of employment claims is closely linked to job turnover — dismissals, retrenchments, and business cessations — all of which have trended upwards in 2025."

Read the dashes carefully, because they carry the argument: dismissals, retrenchments and business cessations are given as what job turnover is, not as three further causes alongside it.

What this means if it is happening to you

If you have just been retrenched, MOM and TADM's own reading of these figures is that the rise in claims reflects job turnover rather than a broad-based decline in employment standards, and what you are owed in the process is set by your employer's obligations under the Employment Act. See retrenchment rights in Singapore for what you are entitled to and the checks worth running before you sign anything.

If you believe your dismissal was not a genuine retrenchment, the numbers above are also a reason to keep expectations realistic rather than to give up. TADM mediation resolves most wrongful dismissal claims without a tribunal hearing, but a majority of those TADM-resolved outcomes go the employer's way, not the employee's, on the 2025 data. The claims that do turn into a settlement are still a genuine minority, not a formality. Getting your documents in order and understanding your actual claim (not just your sense that something was unfair) before you file is what the 35%-not-65% split is really telling you.

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Frequently asked questions

This page is a data reference, not legal advice, and it will not tell you the outcome of your own claim. Figures are compiled from MOM and TADM's own published reporting and re-checked each time this page is refreshed; retrenchment counts are quarterly and claims figures are annual, so the two run on different update schedules.

Last updated 5 September 2026 · How we check this

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Work Rights SG provides general information about employment rights in Singapore. It does not create a lawyer–client relationship. For advice on your situation, speak to a qualified employment lawyer.