S’pore’s job market has an expectation problem, not a talent problem

Huge mismatches between employers and employees are impacting Singapore’s job market. Here‘s what can be fixed.

Getting a job has always been challenging, but the graduating cohort of 2025 is facing a tougher market, plagued by layoffs and demands for advanced skills.

But why is this happening? According to Jobstreet’s 2025 Hiring, Compensation, and Benefits report, the mismatch stems from an alarming gap in expectations between employees and employers.

Eight in 10 employees say that they have experienced some form of mismatch, and six in 10 identify it within the first three months. Conversely, nine in 10 managers believe they are meeting new staff expectations, only for the new hires to change their goalposts shortly after joining.

This chasm between worker needs and employer delivery, the “Expectation Gap,” is fueling burnout, “quiet quitting,” and a crisis of trust that businesses can no longer afford to ignore. Here are some of the biggest gaps that need to be addressed leading into 2026.

Pay mismatch is the basis of employee disappointment

According to the report, nearly half of employers (46%) believe they already meet employee expectations, driven by their focus on offering non-financial benefits such as reasonable working hours (55%) and performance bonuses (52%).

However, employers tend to use intangible benefits such as flexible work arrangements and wellness perks to compensate for pay and clarity gaps, which contradicts 46% of employees’ need for competitive pay and is the foundation of employee disappointment.

Not entitled, just disappointed

That said, the above statistic is not meant to be understood as entitlement. While competitive salaries are essential, workers in Singapore also understand there are trade-offs. They make conditional compromises, trading one priority only if the exchange feels fair and balanced.

Employees are willing to compromise on work location and schedule flexibility (24%), as well as competitive salary and benefits (23%), for other factors, showing a realistic adjustment to market conditions.

This indicates employees are prioritising jobs that address a core need: be it stability, culture, or quality of life, over immediate perfection.

The biggest misalignments

The report also showed that the biggest disconnect between employers and employee expectations is employers’ failure to recognise that their well-intentioned benefits (such as flexible hours) do not compensate for gaps in financial fairness and role clarity.

While employers are flexible on experience (64% would hire a less experienced candidate for a good attitude), they are constrained by budget and rarely stretch on pay. The compromises employers make for sustainability do not always align with what employees perceive as a fair exchange.

The report also pointed out that 90% of employers observe that changing expectations over time add pressure, and as a result, they struggle to keep pace with these evolving, non-linear employee priorities. These changes are often driven by life factors like mental health and well-being, financial goals, and family responsibilities.

Hence, closing the expectation gap requires a cultural reset in which transparency and dialogue between both employers and employees replace assumptions and guesswork.

Employers need to acknowledge their resource constraints early on. If competitive pay cannot be offered, understand that the talent will not put up with this for long. Provide them with development and action plans to achieve the compensation they desire within an agreed-upon timeframe.

Employees, in turn, must know their own trade-offs, conduct due diligence, and communicate changes early in the interview process before disengagement sets in.

• Read the full report here.
• Read more stories we’ve covered on Singapore’s job scene here.

Featured Image Credit: 2p2play/ Shutterstock