K
KNOW
Cost of turnover · SG 2026
Singapore · MOM data to 2Q 2026

What is one leaver really costing you?

Two minutes. Your roles, your hiring, your numbers. No generic percentages, and every figure links to its source.

1 in 3F&B frontline staff resign each year
1 in 4Retail frontline staff resign each year
1 in 6frontline vacancies sit open 6+ months
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01 · Your business

Which of these is closest to you?

people
S$/ month
26%
Heads up. MOM groups education with the public sector, so this rate is a weak proxy for a private centre. Use your own number if you know it.
Your size. MOM surveys private firms with 25 or more staff, so a team your size is not in that sample. Read this as the sector's direction, not your number. If you know yours, drag the bar and it becomes your own figure.

02 · How you hire

Where does the replacement usually come from?

Posting on MyCareersFuture is free for employers. MyCareersFuture for employers ↗
S$per hire
10%of annual pay ·
Recruiter guide, estimate ↗
S$
S$
Ongoing, not counted here: Work Permit levy for Services runs S$450 to S$800 a month by tier, S Pass S$650. Security bond S$5,000 per non-Malaysian Work Permit holder. Medical insurance of at least S$60,000 cover. These follow the seat, not the leaver, so they sit outside the per-leaver cost.

03 · The empty seat

How long does the role sit open?

MOM's latest count: 1 in 6 frontline vacancies stays open for six months or more. Waiters, shop sales assistants and cooks are all in the five hardest roles to fill.

6 weeksbefore someone new starts
MOM Job Vacancies 2025 ↗
hrs / wk
S$/ hr
Overtime is paid at 1.5× the basic hourly rate. Only the extra 0.5× is new money, because you are not paying the leaver's wage while the seat is empty. MOM hours of work & overtime ↗
Part-time floors are set by the PWM for retail and food services, and the Local Qualifying Salary of S$10.50 an hour elsewhere, for firms that hire foreign workers. The wage you save while the seat is empty is shown as its own line.
You save the leaver's wage while the seat is short, so payroll actually goes down. The cost lands on service instead. Put your estimate in the box below to see it.
S$/ week

04 · Getting up to speed

How long until the new hire pulls full weight?

There is no Singapore benchmark for this, so use your own experience. The one anchor MOM gives: retail PWM allows new hires six months to complete their first WSQ module.

weeks
%
S$/ month
hrs / wk
hrs
S$
hrs
Absentee Payroll funding, SkillsFuture ↗
S$
Your business

At your numbers, staff turnover is costing you about

S$0

S$0every time one frontline staff leaves
0leavers a year at your turnover rate
S$0back in the business if turnover drops 10 points
0%

of one year's pay, per leaver. The old rule of thumb was a flat 20%, borrowed from US studies. This is yours, built from your own inputs.

Where the money goes

One lever the Government co-funds

Pay is the number one reason Singapore workers quit. Under the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme the Government pays 30% of wage increases in 2026 for resident staff earning up to S$3,000. A S$100 raise costs you S$70. Set against your cost per leaver, that is a cheap way to keep someone.

Sources behind every number

    Turnover rates are average monthly resignation rates from MOM's Labour Market Survey, annualised by multiplying by 12. Wages marked as PWM floors are legal minimums for firms that hire foreign workers, in force on the dates shown. Wages marked MOM median are gross monthly medians for full-time residents from the Occupational Wage Survey, June 2025, released 30 June 2026. Items marked estimate have no Singapore benchmark and should be replaced with your own figures. Hourly rate follows MOM's formula: 12 × monthly pay ÷ (52 × 44).

    Built by KNOW, the app frontline teams in retail, F&B and services run their floor on. Data current to September 2026.