Why underemployment deserves attention, even if voluntary

This article was first published on The Business Times on 14 May 2026.

A degree in Singapore used to be considered a passport to the middle class. That is a hard truth for a small country that has staked so much on human capital. Through decades of investment in education and skills, such as SkillsFuture and career conversion programmes, the message to workers has always been to keep learning and upskilling, stay relevant, and invest in themselves.

Many did exactly that. In fact, over 64% of the resident workforce¹ in 2025 hold tertiary qualifications according to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). They earned degrees, accumulated credentials, and built skills over years of hard work.

In my work as a labour member of parliament and unionist, I meet workers who are, by every official measure, “doing fine”. Yet, many feel stuck and underutilised. They are quietly frustrated that the skills and experience they have built over years, sometimes decades, are going largely to waste in roles that demand far less of them than they have to offer.

This reason for their “frustration” can be attributed to underemployment, and it is multi-dimensional; it does not occur uniformly across career and life stages.

In a joint research study by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) surveying 1,100 Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents in October 2025, it found that one in five respondents - 22.5% - experienced underemployment arising from skills-job mismatch, that is being over-skilled for their current job. The most prevalent underemployment arises from an education field-job mismatch (31.4%).

NTUC also found that most underemployment in Singapore is voluntary, where 85.5% of workers chose roles that better align with their aspirations, job security, flexible work preferences, or life circumstances such as caregiving responsibilities, whether for young children or elderly parents. Singapore’s underemployment situation is less pronounced than in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries such as Switzerland and the United States. Here, involuntarily overqualified workers who make up 14.5% of the resident workforce represent a significant group whose potential is left on the table every single working day.

Different worker groups face these underemployment risks in different ways. Skills mismatches hit hardest among workers with 16 to 25 years of work experience. On the other hand, qualification-job mismatch affects those workers below 35 or with a degree or diploma holders the most.

Underemployment that is voluntary does not mean it is without consequences. When a worker steps back to care for a family member and their professional skills quietly atrophy over three, five, or ten years, re-entry into the workforce later becomes genuinely hard — especially when trying to secure jobs that align with their skills, qualifications, and fields of study.

Today’s voluntary underemployment can too easily become tomorrow’s involuntary unemployment.

This is precisely why our support efforts must reach both groups.

For the involuntarily underemployed, having better job matching, accessible retraining pathways, and career coaching that goes beyond resume writing to address the real barriers workers face.

For the voluntarily underemployed, the goal is different but equally important — keeping their skills current and their options open, even while they navigate caregiving commitments, so that opportunities remain within reach when they are ready to re-enter the workforce.

NTUC calls on the Government to expand existing schemes on workplace support and training to provide stronger support for parents and caregivers in balancing work, skills development and caregiving responsibilities. In parallel, NTUC is studying parenthood to better understand challenges faced by parents, and to explore targeted interventions to support them.

For fresh graduates and early-career workers facing involuntary underemployment, we need an ecosystem that does more than place them in any job. It must place them in the right job and evolve alongside rapidly changing industries and career aspirations. NTUC encourages the Government to consider extending programmes like Graduate Industry Traineeships (GRIT), with longer and higher-value traineeships in growth sectors, and to ensure host organisations convert trainees into permanent roles. Overseas postings could also help groom early-career professionals.

For mid- and late-career workers, I believe there is a strong case for a structured Career Re-Visioning Programme — a dedicated space for workers to honestly assess where they are, where they want to go, and how to close the gap before it becomes unbridgeable.

We also need to expand Singapore’s official measure of underemployment. Currently, it captures mainly time-related underemployment — workers putting in less than 35 hours and are willing and available to engage in additional work. It does not take into consideration skills mismatch and qualification mismatch. These different indicators provide a fuller picture of underemployment.

I have been advocating on the issue of underemployment in Parliament for over a decade, and I'm heartened that the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is also looking into this.

Singapore has always been a country that invests in its people thoughtfully and effectively.

A worker who is employed but underemployed is not a workforce success story. They are a challenge we have not yet risen to meet.