SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore says it will seek to stabilize the number of foreign workers amid growing discontent about rising housing costs, crowded public transportation and stagnant wages for low-income workers.

Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in a speech in parliament Friday to announce the 2012 budget that the government will lower the percentage of foreign workers that manufacturing and service companies may employ.

Tharman said the number of foreign workers has risen 7.5 percent each year for the last two years and account for a third of the city-state’s work force.

The ruling People’s Action Party recorded its lowest percentage of the vote since independence in 1965 in parliament elections in May.