Why Young Workers in Singapore Put Job Security Ahead of Flexibility

Pay and stability lead the youth wish list

More than 1,000 youths aged 18 to 35 and over 250 employers took part in a Singapore University of Social Sciences study that found financial gain and job security ranked above flexible work arrangements or rapid promotion. Released at Youth Forum 2025, the study challenges the familiar picture of a generation that grew up with digital technology caring most about choosing where and when to work.

The priorities were consistent across all three age groups: 18 to 25, 26 to 30, and 31 to 35. Each placed financial gain and job stability ahead of flexibility or career progression. Flexible arrangements still mattered to the youngest respondents and those in their early 30s, but dependable income and employment formed the foundation of what they wanted.

Workers aged 26 to 30 placed work life balance above flexibility alone. The difference matters: being able to change working hours or location is one benefit, while having enough time and energy for responsibilities outside work is a broader concern. A flexible schedule can still leave someone with an unmanageable workload.

About 68 percent of the youths were exploring new roles. The youngest respondents were more actively searching, while older respondents were more focused on stability. Slow salary growth and an unsupportive workplace culture were among the reasons young workers remained open to moving.

Employers often expected promotions or additional exposure to motivate younger staff. The findings suggest those opportunities have less appeal when they come without matching pay and security. Young Singaporeans want a dependable base, followed by a credible route to grow. The university sets out the findings in its SUSS media release.

Why security carries more weight

Higher living costs, competition for quality jobs, and widely publicised layoffs in technology and other sectors have made employment risks more visible. These pressures help explain why younger workers may value control over their schedules while still placing reliable pay first.

Someone in their early 20s may find flexibility and autonomy especially attractive when personal commitments are lighter. Housing plans and caregiving responsibilities can become more pressing in the late 20s and early 30s. As those obligations grow, a stable income becomes a more immediate need than the possibility of a faster climb at work.

A national youth panel that followed thousands of young people through the late 2010s found careers and financial security near the top of their goals. Many participants reported greater stress at work after graduation, while also developing stronger tolerance for stress and better skills to manage it.

Job security and good routes to career progression consistently mattered when those young people evaluated roles. The value they placed on flexibility increased over time. Together, those findings describe workers who want more control over their working lives without giving up dependable earnings or a stable employer.

Academic reviews of studies in Singapore and abroad also found that younger workers generally placed pay, working conditions, and growth opportunities above purpose. Their priorities did not change dramatically during the pandemic. Education, income, and access to quality jobs continued to shape expectations.

Youths without degrees placed greater weight on higher earnings because their room for advancement was narrower. Degree holders focused more on development and progression once a reasonable income baseline had been reached. The desire for security therefore takes different forms depending on a worker's starting position.

Employers and workers see motivation differently

The SUSS study identified a gap between what youths said motivated them and what employers expected to work. Young respondents favoured financial incentives, flexibility, and autonomy. Employers placed more weight on promotions and opportunities for growth over a longer period.

A promotion may promise a better future, but a worker facing slow salary growth is also judging what it changes now. Additional exposure or responsibilities can feel like extra work with little protection when the employer does not explain the accompanying pay progression or employment security.

That communication gap helps explain why a strong preference for stability can exist alongside widespread interest in changing jobs. Workers may be looking for a more dependable arrangement elsewhere, rather than seeking change for its own sake.

Security also extends beyond simply retaining a position. Fair and predictable pay, sustainable workloads, and visible investment in skills all contribute to a worker's sense of stability. Clear responsibilities and understandable performance measures help employees know what is expected and how their work will be judged.

Employers who promise development without addressing those basics may struggle to build trust. When responsibilities, compensation, and support fit together, the same development opportunity can feel like an investment in the employee rather than another demand.

A skills gap and a learning gap

Employers ranked problem solving as a core capability for advancement. Youths described their strengths differently, placing more weight on communication, adaptability, and teamwork. The mismatch concerns both the skills workers believe they bring and the capabilities employers expect them to demonstrate.

Problem solving often opens the way to roles involving more complex tasks. Communication and teamwork remain essential for coordinating daily work. Employers can connect those expectations by explaining what effective problem solving looks like and providing opportunities to practise it in settings where staff can learn safely.

Youths also preferred external courses and practical experience as ways to build their capabilities. Employers favoured mentoring and coaching within the workplace. Both approaches have value, but the difference can create frustration when employees and managers assume they share the same learning plan.

A combined approach brings structured guidance together with projects that allow workers to apply new skills. Practical tasks help employees build confidence and retain what they have learned. Mentoring can then support that practice through feedback and advice.

A shared plan could include time and funding for external courses alongside workplace projects and coaching. The purpose is to agree on what the employee will learn, how it will be used, and what support the employer will provide.

Flexibility still has a place

Employee surveys in Singapore continue to identify work life balance as a strong reason to join an organisation and to stay. Many workers place balance and attractive pay packages as their top two priorities, with job security close behind.

Younger groups also tend to value training and growth, while older groups pay more attention to company stability and a manageable workload. Those patterns fit the SUSS findings: flexibility remains desirable, but reliable pay and employment give it a firmer foundation.

The preference for balance over flexibility among respondents aged 26 to 30 points to the value of predictability around workloads and time off. Changing where someone works will do little for their personal life if the volume of work continually spills into evenings or leave.

Employers can combine stable contracts and clear pay progression with arrangements that protect focused working time. Core hours for collaboration can help teams coordinate while allowing some control over individual schedules.

Managers also need to watch workloads so that flexible arrangements do not conceal chronic overtime. Limited communications after working hours and leave that employees actually take can turn balance from a promise into a regular workplace practice.

Why shorter stays can serve a practical purpose

A recent regional survey of Gen Z found that respondents in Singapore reported the shortest preferred stay in a role, averaging under three years. A sizeable share considered one to two years the optimum period.

Younger workers may move to gain skills, take on broader responsibilities, find a better culture, or negotiate higher pay. Many have seen hiring budgets exceed budgets for retaining existing staff, making an external move a route to a larger salary increase.

Frequent moves also carry costs. Workers may be viewed as lacking depth if they cannot explain how each role contributed to their development. A move made for learning and meaningful results offers a stronger career story than one made solely for a small raise.

Employers can respond by making internal progression practical and visible. A worker seeking new responsibilities or better compensation may stay when there is a genuine route to obtain them within the organisation. That can reduce staff turnover and preserve knowledge built through experience.

Hiring managers can examine what happened during each job rather than judging tenure alone. Expanded responsibilities and completed projects with measurable results help explain a candidate's progress. Workers who connect their moves to defined capabilities can demonstrate maturity even when their stays have been relatively short.

The health cost of dependable earnings

Research on young adults working in Singapore found that long hours were a cultural norm. Participants described fatigue, eating meals at their desks, and having less time to exercise. Many gained weight after starting full time work.

Women often carried more household responsibilities after work, leaving less time to recover. Most participants accepted long hours as necessary for career advancement and stable pay, even as those routines harmed their health.

Employment security therefore has a practical connection to job design. Sustainable workloads, predictable schedules, and adequate staffing can help workers maintain their health and meet family commitments. Rest also allows them to return to work with greater focus and energy.

Companies that reduce chronic overtime or establish limits around communications after working hours often experience steadier productivity and lower staff turnover. Those workplace practices matter to younger employees deciding whether a job is sustainable enough to keep.

Replacing employees is costly and takes time. Investment in better job design and manager training to protect time off can pay back through stronger engagement and fewer sick days. A dependable job is more useful to a worker when keeping it does not require repeatedly sacrificing recovery.

What employers can change now

Employers seeking to retain young talent can make security the foundation of their approach, then build credible opportunities for growth around it. The practical work spans pay, daily responsibilities, learning, and how managers treat their teams.

• Put pay and employment security first. Compare salaries with the market, review increments regularly, and match increased responsibilities with appropriate compensation. Where viable, convert extended temporary or contract positions into permanent roles.
• Clarify responsibilities and reduce hidden tasks. Map the work expected of each role, remove administrative tasks with little value, and invest in systems that reduce repetitive burdens.
• Make advancement visible. Publish pay bands and promotion criteria, and show examples of internal moves so employees understand how progression works.
• Make workloads sustainable. Track demands on staff, prevent chronic overtime, set expectations for communications after working hours, and protect leave and recovery time.
• Develop people skills through practice. Use rotations and projects to let staff exercise problem solving, supported by coaching and feedback.
• Agree on learning plans together. Provide budgets and time for external courses and practical experience, then pair those opportunities with mentoring that helps employees apply their skills.
• Strengthen managers' capabilities. Train them to discuss careers and pay openly, recognise contributions, and support balance without penalising flexible arrangements.
• Improve fairness and culture. Address equity in hiring and advancement, and maintain a respectful environment where employees feel safe sharing different views.
• Track results. Measure retention at 6, 12, and 24 months, examine why employees leave, and adjust programmes using that evidence.

Pay that keeps pace with responsibilities and workloads that remain manageable can make development feel like genuine support. Those conditions give younger workers more reason to consider an internal move instead of continuing to search outside the organisation.

Policy support for work and training

The National Day Rally outlined measures intended to support jobs and skills in a more uncertain economy. Government and unions are working to strengthen basic protections for workers while helping them develop capabilities for changing roles.

A traineeship scheme funded by the government will provide paid exposure to real work for students and new graduates from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), polytechnics, and universities. Expanded job matching, including campus job fairs and services at community level, aims to help people move more quickly into suitable roles.

SkillsFuture programmes are being upgraded to fund more training time and broaden course choices, including courses from industry leaders and private providers. That connects support for employment with opportunities to gain skills rather than treating the two as separate needs.

Job redesign is another part of the response as technology spreads. Examples include retraining equipment operators to work with automated systems and studying how artificial intelligence (AI) could change processes in logistics and aviation. The aim is to help workers move into safer tasks with greater value instead of being displaced.

Union partnerships remain central to that work, with attention to fair wages, safety, and training as responsibilities evolve. These measures address the same combination reflected in youth preferences: a dependable livelihood alongside the ability to keep developing.

Different youths need different support

The SUSS study team is working with self help groups to analyse data on different youth segments so that support can be tailored. Age alone does not explain how a person weighs income, stability, flexibility, and growth.

Education levels, family responsibilities, and financial buffers also shape those decisions. A worker with limited savings or substantial caregiving duties may judge an opportunity differently from someone with fewer immediate commitments. The earlier findings on degree holders and youths without degrees show why a single approach will not meet every need.

Programmes that respond to those circumstances can better connect training and employment support with what young people need. For employers, the central lesson is equally practical: growth opportunities carry more weight when workers can see fair pay, clear expectations, and a sustainable working life alongside them.

Key Points

• The SUSS study surveyed more than 1,000 youths aged 18 to 35 and over 250 employers, finding that financial gain and job security ranked above flexibility or rapid promotion.
• About 68 percent of youths were exploring new roles, with slow salary growth and unsupportive culture among the reasons for considering a move.
• Youths favoured financial incentives, flexibility, and autonomy, while employers placed more weight on promotions and opportunities for growth.
• Employers prioritised problem solving; youths highlighted communication, adaptability, and teamwork. They also differed over preferred learning methods.
• Flexibility remained valuable, particularly when supported by dependable pay, stable contracts, manageable workloads, and protected time off.
• Singapore respondents in a regional Gen Z survey preferred stays averaging under three years, with many favouring one to two years.
• Research linked long working hours with fatigue, desk meals, reduced exercise, weight gain, and less recovery time.
• Employer responses include clearer pay and promotion practices, better workload management, combined learning methods, stronger managers, and fairer workplace practices.
• Policy measures include paid traineeships, expanded job matching, SkillsFuture upgrades, and job redesign supported by union partnerships.