Chart of the Day: A closer look at Singapore's rapidly shrinking foreign worker pool

Non-resident population growth dropped to just 2.1%.

As the government tightens its grip on non-resident employment with amendments to policies such as the Fair Consideration Framework and Jobs Bank, total population growth also followed suit as it slowed to 1.2%, the slowest in over a decade.

According to a report by the National Population and Talent Division, the foreign labour force only grew by 23,000 in 2014-2015 after growing by 33,000 the previous year. The current number is also a far cry from its recent growth peak of 77,000 in 2011-2012.

NPTD also warned that businesses will continue to struggle with a tight labour market.

“There were 1.63 million non-residents, including dependants, international students and individuals who are here to work. Singapore’s total population was 5.54 million,” NPTD said.

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