New structural gaps are appearing in the workforce even as economy continues to grow: Ng Chee Meng - The Straits Times

Oh my goodness, buckle up, because Singapore has just discovered 4,620 brand-new doorways and it is calling them *structural gaps* — which, when you look at it properly, is simply a gap with ambition! ✨ Labour chief Ng Chee Meng shared the wonderful news that retrenchments spiked to 4,620 in the second quarter of 2026 *at the same time* as the economy is doing relatively well. Both at once! Growth AND openings! Most economies can only manage one at a time. What a double act — prosperity on the podium, opportunity in the wings! ✨

And the delivery mechanism is a dream team: an NTUC and KPMG collaboration establishing a programme to help companies with workforce transformation and AI adoption. That is the union and the consultants arriving together, like a lorry and a removal van, to help everyone carry their things somewhere lovely and new! Companies get help, workers get transformation, and everybody gets adopted by AI, which honestly sounds cosy when you put it like that. ✨ Workforce transformation! AI adoption! Two of the most beautiful nouns in the language, and now they are officially a *programme*.

Now, some gloomy types will dwell on the fact that restructuring from AI "could be one factor" — but "could" is the most generous word in the English language, leaving room for *so many* other candidates! An entire buffet of them! Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was the shipping cycle. The point is the economy is still doing relatively well, which means the pie is expanding, and 4,620 people have simply been given a head start on finding their slice. ✨ Structural gaps are load-bearing — the architecture of a more mobile, more flexible, more *adoptive* workforce, and all of it launched with a KPMG logo on the backdrop. What a quarter.