Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has confirmed that from September 1, 2026, it is adding eight new occupations across the Food Services, Air Transportation, and Social Services sectors to the Non-Traditional Sources (NTS) Occupation List — the mechanism that lets employers hire Work Permit holders from a specific group of source countries for a restricted set of jobs.
The eight new occupations
- Butchers, fishmongers, and related food preparers
- Food/drink stall assistants
- Kitchen assistants
- Waiters
- Cabin attendants
- Babysitters/infant caregivers
- Educarers
- Teacher aides
Who can be hired under this route
Under the NTS Occupation List, employers in the Manufacturing and Services sectors can hire Work Permit holders for these listed roles from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand — a wider set of source countries than Singapore's standard Work Permit rules normally allow for non-traditional sources. Employers must keep NTS hires within an 8% sub-quota of their overall foreign worker headcount and pay each worker a fixed monthly salary of at least S$2,000. Workers may only perform the specific occupation stated on their Work Permit.
Why this matters for workers
Until now, the NTS list was mostly built around manufacturing, food-preparation, and heavy-vehicle driving roles. Extending it into food-service front-of-house work, airline cabin crew, and childcare/early-childhood support roles opens new, lower-barrier Work Permit routes for these nationalities in sectors that previously leaned more on S Pass hiring — which carries a materially higher salary threshold. For Bangladeshi, Indian, and Sri Lankan workers in particular, this is a genuine widening of which jobs in Singapore they can be legally recruited for under a Work Permit rather than needing S Pass-level qualifications or pay.
If you're being recruited for one of these eight roles, confirm your prospective employer holds the relevant sector licence (for example, a Singapore Food Agency licence for food-service employers) and that your Work Permit correctly states your occupation — working outside the stated role is a compliance breach. This is a new pathway, not a guarantee of placement or approval; MOM's quota and salary conditions still apply in full.
