1. For the full year of 2025, employment increased by 55,500 (11,600 residents and 43,900 non-residents), up from 44,500 (8,800 residents and 35,700 non-residents) in 2024. Non-resident employment growth was driven largely by Work Permit Holders in Construction.
   
   
2. Unemployment rates remained low and stable in December 2025 (overall: 2.0%; resident: 2.9%; citizen: 3.0%), and the resident long-term unemployment rate held steady at 0.9% in December 2025, unchanged from September 2025.
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3. Retrenchments (3,690, or 1.5 retrenched per 1,000 employees in 4Q 2025) remained within non-recessionary norms.
   
   
4. Job vacancies increased from 69,600 in September 2025 to 77,700 in December 2025, raising the overall vacancy-to-unemployed ratio from 1.50 to 1.58 over the same period.
   
   
5. Retrenchments stayed low at 3,670 (or 1.6 retrenched per 1,000 employees) in 3Q 2025. The resident re-entry rate within six months post-retrenchment declined slightly from 56.3% in 2Q 2025 to 55.4% in 3Q 2025.
   
   
6. Going forward, we expect employment and wage growth to moderate. Based on latest expectations data for 1Q 2026, a smaller share of firms expects to hire or raise wages over the next three months compared to September 2025.
   

​​​​​​For more key findings, please refer to the executive summary​ of the report.​​​

This report also features an article on Impact of AI on the Workforce: Recent Trends in PMETs’ Labour Market Outcomes, which examines recent labour market outcomes for PMETs in view of concerns about AI-driven job displacement. ​