SINGAPORE: Singaporeans are voicing growing frustration over what they see as contradictory expectations placed on young adults: to remain relentlessly “hungry” and competitive in the workplace while also starting families to help reverse the nation’s record-low birth rate.

The debate intensified after recruiter Shulin Lee, founder of legal recruitment firm Aslant Legal, warned in a recent CNA podcast that companies are increasingly replacing Singaporean workers with foreign hires whom she described as “hungrier”.

Drawing from her experience as a recruiter, Ms Lee said some employers were choosing workers from countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines over Singaporeans. She argued that the issue was not necessarily skill, but drive and willingness to go the extra mile.

“That hunger is now irreplaceable,” she said, while urging workers to remain “paranoid” about the changing job market and to continuously improve their relationship-building and communication skills.

Her comments quickly sparked heated discussion online, with some Singaporeans agreeing that she was simply describing the realities of the labour market, while others criticised her use of the word “hungrier” and argued that it ignored deeper structural pressures facing local workers.

Responding to criticism, Ms Lee said the backlash may have “hit a nerve” and maintained that the trend extended beyond developing nations, citing competition from workers in places such as Hong Kong, China and New Zealand.

“The entire world is going through disruption,” she said, reiterating that workers should not become complacent.

However, her comments landed at a time when Singaporeans are also being urged by the Government to have more children to counter the country’s rapidly declining birth rate.

Singapore’s total fertility rate fell to a historic low of 0.87 in 2025, down from 0.97 the year before, prompting renewed concern over the nation’s demographic future.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah, who chairs a new government workgroup studying the issue, recently called for a “long-term roadmap” towards a broader “social reset”.

In a Facebook post last week, she said that “family formation and having more Singaporean babies has become even more important than ever”.

“We can all play a part in ways that make a real difference — at work, in our families and in our communities. Let’s make this change together!” she wrote.

But many Singaporeans online questioned how younger adults are expected to juggle both intense career demands and family-building at the same time.

One commenter summed up the tension bluntly: “On one side we have the LinkedIn crowd saying that young people need to be ‘hungry’ and work longer hours for less pay. Then on the other side we have the government urging us to have more babies sooner. But we only have 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year. So are we supposed to make more tax dollars or more kids?”

Others described feeling exhausted and overwhelmed by mounting expectations.

“So sick of the world today, man, just exhausted,” one Singaporean wrote.

Another commented: “We are expected to work magic and find 25 hours a day, raise a family on $2000 a month and hold multiple jobs while at it.”

Several commenters also pointed to what they saw as a widening disconnect between older leaders and younger generations navigating a vastly different economic landscape.

“Talk is easier than doing. There has been this disconnect between the ‘leadership’ generation and the younger generations. The world of today is very different. What the older generations’ beliefs and values no longer apply in the current world,” one person wrote.

Another offered an even bleaker assessment of modern life in Singapore: “You’re supposed to slave away, have kids and survive. Nobody said anything about enjoying life.”

This article (Be ‘hungry’ or have kids: Singaporeans say they feel pulled in two directions) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.