The employment-to-population ratio is employed people as a percent of the population ages 15+ (SL.EMP.TOTL.SP.ZS). It does not condition on being in the labour force. Latest: 67.71% in 2025.
It moves with both jobs and demography. From 1991 to 2025 (35 years): mean 63.93%, median 63.12%; low 60.22% (1992), high 67.71% (2025).
This series is the employment-to-population ratio for people aged 15 and over: the share of that population who are employed. The source is World Bank Open Data indicator SL.EMP.TOTL.SP.ZS, an ILO modelled estimate. It is not the unemployment rate. Students, retirees, people looking after a household and others outside the labour force are all in the denominator, so the ratio can fall even when unemployment is unchanged. The ratio also treats each employed person alike, whether they work an hour a week or a full year.
The indicator is modelled from national labour-force surveys and censuses and is revised when those inputs change. Population age structure and retirement ages differ between economies, so levels are not directly equivalent. The chart shows selected economies over the years you choose, and the ranked ledger shows each economy’s latest published year. Read the direction of travel and the broad level; small differences between neighbouring economies sit within the uncertainty of the estimates. Read it with the participation rate for context.
About this desk
The Singapore desk places Singapore first and shows the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, the euro area, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and New Zealand alongside it, where the source publishes them. The figures are the same World Bank ILO modelled estimates as the all-countries pages, filtered to this desk, with nothing recomputed. Taiwan appears only on the headline unemployment page, filled from the IMF World Economic Outlook because the World Bank does not publish it. This desk is reachable by its address but is not listed in the Country selector, and the page is set to noindex.
Use the Chart and Table tabs for two views of the same data and the range buttons to change the window. Each page names its indicator and licence. A blank cell means the source has no value for that economy and year. No value is estimated beyond what the source publishes.