New index to list 300 firms most committed to career, salary growth

It looks at how they fare across metrics like pay, progression and gender parity

- Tay Hong Yi Correspondent

From the first quarter of 2026, workers here can visit a new website to discover the 300 employers most committed to providing career and salary growth, as measured by a new index.

The move is also meant to spur companies to pull their weight in attracting, retaining and nurturing talent, complementing both government workforce policies and workers' own upskilling efforts.

To achieve all this, the Singapore Opportunity Index takes into account employers' performance across various pay, progression, gender parity, retention and hiring metrics.

Unveiling the index at an industry event on Oct 14, Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng said it offers a clearer understanding of how employers' practices shape worker outcomes.

He was speaking at the People Behind People Forum 2025, a one-day event organised by the Institute for Human Resource Professionals. Some 750 delegates attended the forum, held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

Dr Tan added that the Singapore Opportunity Index is not intended to rank employers.

Instead, the goal is to help organisations take concrete steps to better develop talent based on objective and consistent data that they do not need to pay for.

The first edition of the index evaluates nearly 1,500 companies, each employing at least 100 local residents. Together, they account for nearly one million residents or around 45 per cent of all Singaporeans and permanent residents in the workforce.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) partnered the Singapore University of Social Sciences and American independent think-tank The Burning Glass Institute to develop the index.

Unlike employee surveys by private-sector providers, the index uses government data sets on occupational employment.