5 CDCs to focus on helping retrenched PMETs look for new jobs.
Story at ChannelNewsAsia: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1028930/1/.html

42,000 unemployed find jobs through Spur

[Source: MyPaper, 23 Dec 2009]

THE report card for the Singapore Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur) is out.

The programme has trained more people than it aimed to,found jobs for many trainees who were unemployed, and saved countless others from being retrenched.

Started in November last year, the programme has enrolled 264,000 workers in its various training courses, exceeding the target of 220,000.

The programme also helped about 42,000 of them – unemployed citizens and permanent residents – find jobs, mainly in the food-and-beverage, cleaning, wholesale and retail-trade, manufacturing, and security sectors.

About seven in 10 were rank-and-file workers with up to secondary education. Six in 10 were aged 40 and above. In addition, more than 2,770 others were given traineeships in more than 390 firms, under a government-funded Professional Skills Programme Traineeship scheme launched in May this year.

2010 job market outlook remains bleak

Massive recovery of employment market not expected next year
[Source: ChannelNewsAsia]

SINGAPORE: It has been one of the worst recessions Singapore has faced since independence and the nation has taken several approaches to tackle it.

The government, employers and workers have made a collective effort to cut costs and save jobs. And for the first time, Singapore has drawn on its past reserves to fund a major resilience package.

The economic downturn started in the middle of 2008 and the economic situation worsened as it spilled over into the new year. The government responded by bringing the Budget forward to January 2009, announcing a S$20 billion resilience package.

Liang Eng Hwa, deputy chair, Government Parliamentary Committee (Finance and Trade and Industry), said: “We need to build more resilience in the economy so that in the event there is another downturn of this magnitude, Singapore will not be that badly affected. Secondly, this crisis also drives home the point that we need to maintain high reserves and have a strong fiscal position.”

With the use of past reserves, the Jobs Credit scheme was launched to help companies reduce labour costs and save jobs through cash grants. The scheme has been extended for six months till June 2010.

More than S$3.6 billion of Jobs Credit would have been paid out by the government after its fourth payment on December 24. Another two, stepped-down payments in March and June 2010 will cost the government another S$675 million.

“The six months, hopefully, will be helpful to companies as they start to build new orders for the businesses, find new markets and if need be, further restructure the business so that they can stay viable for the long term,” said Mr Liang.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and NTUC’s secretary-general, Lim Swee Say, said: “For Singapore, we are already looking beyond Jobs Credit because we know Jobs Credit is not here to stay. So the tripartite partners are now working very closely… asking ourselves how we can be cheaper, better and faster.

“Being cheaper means enhancing our productivity so that every piece of equipment and worker can produce more output, so that we can reduce the costs of doing business and enhance our competitiveness.

“The good news is that many countries are thinking along the same way, but in Singapore, we are one step ahead of them. That’s because the trust and unity among the tripartite partners during the downturn were not weakened but in fact, further strengthened. As a result, come 2010, the tripartite partners are able to run together, ahead of the competition elsewhere.”

The Economic Strategies Committee was formed earlier this year to focus on developing and recommending strategies to grow Singapore’s future as a leading global city in the heart of Asia. Its report is expected to be released at the end of January 2010.

Mr Liang said: “I have spoken to many business people and they have told me that they prefer to have a more steady growth, even though the growth may be at a lower rate, as opposed to high growth where there will be volatility.

“Businesses want to have some stability and certainty so that they can plan for the longer term. Excessive volatility tends to attract a risk premium to the business and thereby increasing overall costs.

“I would hope that the next phase of growth would be smart growth. In the last three to four years, we have seen strong growth in our economy. While it is good to have strong growth, it has also caused other problems. We have seen bottlenecks in certain segments of the economy, we have seen costs risen and that has led to inflationary pressures, eroding our competitiveness.

“I think we have to be careful where our bottlenecks and constraints are, and identify our comparative advantages, play on our niches so that we can have targeted growth where there is potential.”

Also witnessing its fair share of ups and downs is Singapore’s labour market, which has seen some improvements in the past few months.

Even though Singapore’s economy appears to be recovering, the Ministry of Manpower said it will take some time before its employment situation stabilises.

Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said: “One main reason is that many of the employers have held on to excess workers in the recession because of the various measures we have put in. Therefore, as the economy recovers, many of these employers will tap on the excess manpower and capacity that they have before they start to expand and recruit new workers.

“Recruitment and employment opportunities will typically lag behind economic recovery and therefore it is important for us to take that into account while the economy recovers. Over the next twelve months, we expect the employment market to remain more or less stable, but we do not see a massive recovery of the employment market.

“It is important for us to continue to help workers who are affected as it will take some time for them to get back to the job market. It is important for us to continue to train them and give them skills.

“It is also important to remember that many of the new opportunities that are coming along after the recovery will be new investments and they will have new skill sets. So we have to prepare our workers, train them and upgrade them so that they will be able to tap the new opportunities.”

Asked about some of his key concerns for workers as Singapore recovers from the global downturn, Mr Gan explained that he is always worried about the employment of workers.

He said: “At the moment, we have some 20,000 jobs which are immediately available on our database. We have 14,000 job-seekers on our register and this has come down significantly from the peak.

“Theoretically, they should match each other and we should have excess jobs short of workers. But we could not match them because of a variety of reasons. Skills mismatch is one – therefore training is one – and expectation is another factor.

“We need to send some of these workers for career counselling so that they would have a realistic expectation as to what kind of jobs they can do. It is also important to enhance their basic employability skills.

“Some of them have not worked in a big company before, so interpersonal skills, how to deal with your superior and peers are important employment skills… We have done much better in this recession than in the previous one because we have paid a lot of attention to helping the workers prepare themselves for employment rather than just simply job matching.”

For 2010, Singapore’s Trade and Industry Ministry has forecast economic growth of between 3 and 5 per cent.

5.5% growth in 2010 means…?

Key Indicators: [Source: Statistics Singapore]

• GDP up 0.6% in Q32009
• CPI down 0.8% in Oct 2009
• Total Trade down 12.4% in Oct 2009
• Retail Sales down 11.8% in Sep 2009
• Index of Industrial Production up 3.6% in Oct 2009
• Total Population 4.99M in Jun 2009
• Employment 2.95M in Sep 2009
• Unemployment Rate (SA) 3.4% in Sep 2009
• Wages/Earnings (monthly average for quarter) S$3,562

It seems that despite the economic recovery ["Singapore declares its recession over"], unemployment is still pretty much a big concern in this country. We can always analyse the statistics and say things like “unemployment persist because of structural rigidities, especially since we recently came out of recession”, but try telling a PMET who had been retrenched and unable to find a job for the past 18 months just that, and see what kind of response you would get.

In a latest survey, private sector economists (from the financial institutions, obviously) projected optimistic figures for Singapore’s growth in 2010 – 5.5% [link here] but at the same time cautioned that economic growth will likely be “subdued”.

In all honesty, I don’t think the projected growth figures make sense to understanding and solving unemployment in Singapore– for one, you were polling fund managers and financial professionals whose agenda is more aligned towards making sure their clients’ financial portfolios remain attractive for them to stay invested. There has been a long-standing assumption that a recovery in the financial markets will always trigger actual economic activity and hence growth, but don’t be misled: it’s not always the case, even if the financial dudes in pin-stripe suits driving flashy cars and working from well-furnished offices continually try to convince you thus.

For one, consider the following sentence:

They are also counting on major economies stabilising so that consumer confidence can rebound and support manufacturing and export activity here.

Granted, we are an export oriented economy. It would then appear to make sense that if the major economies stabilise, consumer spending will necessarily increase, and with our manufacturing and export levels going up, it indirectly means more jobs to go around. Hurrah.

Take a good look at the words in bold– what these financial people (I don’t even want to call them economists) are telling you is this: we have no idea IF it happens but WHEN economies like the US and Europe recover, and we are very optimistic they will come back in a big way, the whole world will be happy once again. And please publish this in front-page news headlines so more people will purchase financial products. Past performance does not guarantee future performance–check with your banker to see how we fit you into a new “global economic recovery structured note (GERN)” that will target recovering economies.

And what then, for people hoping the economic recovery will bring about more employment opportunities? Well, more or less the response will be thus: Employment? Oh, don’t worry, because we have already said the economy will recover, you will find a job– I can’t gurantee what job, but you will have one. And oh, please go and invest in GERN– do your part, stimulate the economy. Past performance does not guarantee future performance, LISTEN to your banker…oh, you’re unemployed and can’t afford? Who cares then! I’m not a freaking charity, am I??

In Economics 101, we were taught that while GDP growth is a function of Consumer Expenditure, Investment, Government Spending and Net Exports, Consumer Expenditure takes up the large gist of the pie accounting for more than 70% in some economies. If you asked me, we’re better off having more Great Singapore Sales or putting up with more roadworks in Singapore to stimulate the economy than to count on the US, European and Japanese consumers buying made-in-Singapore products, or trying to get more people invested in pseudo-Ponzi schemes.

And here’s the thing: no job, no income, where got money to spend??

 

Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men.

Franklin D. Roosevelt