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Singapore – Workers’ Party politician and former NCMP Yee Jenn Jong has referred to the recent comment of “3.5 million jobs for 2.5 million Singaporeans” by Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing.
In a Facebook post on Monday (September 21), he wrote: “There are actually 3.6 million employees in Singapore despite the pandemic which caused a decline from 3.7 million in the previous quarter.” He added that 2.2 million of the employees are residents (Singaporean and PR).
Although the minister has not elaborated, let me explain what I think of these 3.5 million jobs for 2.5 million …
Posted by Yee Jenn Jong 余振忠 on Sunday Sep 20, 2020
“The question is how many of the non-local jobs are destined or suitable for locals,” he wrote.
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Yee noted that there are more than 1 million in the work permit and S-Pass categories, in the lowest paying jobs. Referring to jobs in the construction and retail industries, he added, “Those jobs are viable for locals but sadly, in Singapore, for some industries, our productivity is still at the level of the 1980s and 1990s.”
“Yes, there are 3.5 million and more jobs, for the 2.5 million local people who have a job or who are actively looking for it. Another thing is to make the jobs relevant to Singaporeans, ”he said.
He also questioned why productivity in some sectors is so low that employers cannot pay higher wages to make jobs meaningful to Singaporeans.
“Why are Singaporeans losing out in the PMET professions and in top positions? We need to examine this in more detail, ”he said.
Yee’s comments came in response to Chan’s statement on Thursday (September 18) that Singapore does not believe it will run out of jobs as it has 3.5 million jobs for 2.5 million Singaporeans.
Speaking at a panel on digital connectivity at the Singapore Summit, Chan said that there has been a paradigm shift where people in the past thought that manual jobs were at risk as they can be replaced by robots and automation, but that has changed. Recently, as the world is increasingly realizing that “the competition is getting tougher for administrative jobs that can be performed over the Internet.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has further emphasized these changes, as more people started working from home. He added that this is why even white-collar workers would need lifelong learning in order to remain competitive. / ITGS
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