Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressed the pressing issue of jobs, which is many Singaporeans’ top concern in his May Day Rally on 1 May 2017.
In PM Lee’s speech, he addressed three ways of thinking about jobs.
1. Create new jobs by bringing in new businesses and investments, and expanding existing businesses.
The Singapore Economic Development Board has been working hard to get multinational corporations to invest in Singapore. For example, in the area of Information Technology, Google has opened a new campus in Mapletree Business City with a staff strength of 1,000. Google is also training 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) business leaders on how SMEs can go digital, which will help to transform the economy.
The Government is also helping high-tech and traditional SMEs to upgrade themselves, go overseas, expand, and build new capabilities. The example of the Singaporean company, Grandluxe, was given in PM Lee’s speech. Grandluxe was a traditional bookbinding workshop along Mohamed Sultan Road started in 1942, where workers will bind reports and papers with hard covers or leather by hand. In this technological age and with the Internet, such book-binding activities are redundant. Grandluxe rebranded into Bynd Artisan and changed its business model to one that is of a retail experience – a customer goes to the shop, picks his materials, and skilled bookbinders will personalise it into a beautiful leather-bound notebook. Bynd Artisan is doing well now, and selling to the world.
2. Find replacement jobs for workers (especially professionals, managers, executives and technicans [PMETs]) who have lost their jobs or are out of work, and need work.
As the economy grows, businesses rely much on technology and have to restructure to survive.
The Government has expanded several schemes under Adapt and Grow – professional conversion programme (PCP), career support programme for PMETs, and enhanced work trial support for the rank and file.
In many countries, youth employment rose after the financial crisis, and has stayed constantly at a high. And among those who are working, many are underemployed. Even in South Korea and Taiwan, with economies similar to ours, many young people have either given up looking for jobs or taken on part-time work. Yet in Singapore, the youth unemployment rate remains low. This is because the schools emphasise on-the-job training, and work with employers to tailor the curriculum and internship programmes.
National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) has also set up the NTUC Youth Career Network which mentors youth by offering career guidance and prepares them for job applications.
Mature workers are also encouraged to take up courses, reskill and try something new with new employees or new careers in different industries.
The public sector (such as Land Transport Authority, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health) is leading by example to hire mid-career PMETs. The Ministry of Manpower can also develop PCPs for both entry-level and mid-level jobs, and support employers with reskilling programmes. The Government will reimburse employers the wages of the workers they take on during this conversion period.
3. Jobs for future workers – which is to train students and workers to do something different, bigger and becoming more productive in their jobs.
Through the SkillsFuture programme, the Government is also supporting workers to upgrade themselves.
The Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) was the main recommendation by the Committee on the Future Economy (CFE). Through ITMs, businesses can stay viable and thrive – and keep the jobs they have and create new ones. This involves focusing on specific things the Government can do in each industry, and come up with well-thought-out-plans to upgrade and improve.
For example, the logistics industry which is a big contributor to our economy; together with transport, it employs nearly 250,000 workers. The prospects are bright because of technology, robotics and data analytics. NTUC through FairPrice has a new distribution centre, and it is equipped with an Automated Storage and Caddy Pick System, the first such system in the Asia-Pacific.
The Government plans to create another 2,000 PMET jobs in logistics in the next five years! But to do that, employers must invest in technology, train up workers, unions must work with employers, identify where the new jobs will be, and help workers get new skills. The Government will then support companies to adopt new technology and workers to get training. This will be the job of the Future Economy Council, led by Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, who will work with Trade and Industry (Industry) Minister S Iswaran, Labour Chief and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing, Education Minister (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung, and National Development Minister Lawrence Wong to transform Singapore’s economy and to grow jobs.
Read more here and watch his full speech below.
Source: The Straits Times, 2 May 2017