A recent report from the Ministry of Trade and Industry warns growth might be disappointing to end 2016 at the lower range 1-2%. The city economy is in for a rough time with concerns over Brexit and weakening global demand weighing down economic growth forecast to 1-2%. Cyclical winds affecting the growth of the city-state is partly because of the restructuring in China too and some sector specific factors. Oil remains stubbornly low and this impacts on companies in others sectors facing small or zero growth pressuring them to keep financially sound. A central bank survey revealed that economists and experts expect Singapore's trade-dependent economy to grow 1.8% this year, as reported by Singapore Business review. "First, structurally, we are now in the new mode of growth. We can't keep growing by increasing manpower. We have to get productivity up. But even if things go well in Singapore, structurally we are talking about normal growth being 2 to 3 per cent – which is relatively good if we go by the standards of most developed economies," Deputy Prime Minister Tharman was quoted as saying, according to reports.

A recent report singles out Singaporeans are the unhappiest employees in Asia
“Singaporeans are the unhappiest employees out of seven Asian markets”, according to JobStreet.com’s Job Happiness Index released in September. Sentiment ratings and future outlooks about their jobs saw them scoring an average of 4.93, the unhappiest score among the surveyed markets. Among the respondents, C-suites/key appointment holders were found to be the unhappiest with an average score of 4.4, while fresh graduates were the happiest employees with an average score of 5.3. However employees in the sciences, hotels and restaurants, human resources functions were found to be the happiest Lack of management competency was the top reason cited by Singaporean respondents for being unhappy at work. The second biggest factor was the lack of promotions and career development, followed by poor training and development programmes. Mr Tharman said there are still many opportunities in Singapore and the region, and it is crucial to build capabilities and competitiveness to tap them. "In the short term, we have to deal with the problems that workers and companies face. For SMEs, this is a time to retool, and a time to build up capabilities," he said, calling on more SMEs to take full advantage of the various government schemes and grants available to them. "The government is using this period, this tough economic climate, to help SMEs to retool and make sure that everyone who's displaced from a job can get back in as soon as possible," he said.

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Source:
http://sbr.com.sg/economy/news/singapore-economy-braces-more-turbulent-period-dpm-tharman  
https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/survey-finds-singaporeans-the-unhappiest-employees-in-asia-101836254.html 
https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/survey-finds-singaporeans-the-unhappiest-employees-in-asia-101836254.html