Structural unemployment "a worry for government"
-
SINGAPORE: Labour chief Lim Swee Say has identified structural unemployment as an issue the government is concerned about, a problem he expects to get worse given the economic outlook.
Mr Lim was speaking at a forum organised by the Young Sikh Association on Saturday.
The labour chief told some 200 participants at the forum that for real wages to keep growing, the economy must expand by three to five percent over the next decade.
But it won't be easy.
A big concern is a mismatch between workers' skills and what's demanded by employers.
Mr Lim said low-wage workers are vulnerable to structural unemployment.
Another group is the Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs).
He said the last 15 years have seen a concerted effort to train workers better.
And the current focus on achieving sustainable and inclusive growth is an extension of this goal.
Mr Lim said: "Simply put, sustainable growth is to ensure there is enough opportunities. Inclusive growth is to minimise structural mismatch. In other words, if a growing number of Singaporeans are not able to take on these jobs that are being created in the economy, then they'll be excluded."
The labour chief said one way out for the PMEs is professional conversion to adapt to new jobs.
As for low-wage workers, the emphasis is on upgrading skills and re-designing jobs.
Mr Lim, who is also the Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, said the economy needs a mix of local and foreign enterprises to grow.
And the government's aim is to ensure Singaporeans form the core of the workforce, even as it continues to accept foreign workers.
The ratio between foreign and local workers will be kept at 1:2.
Mr Lim recalled his time in the Economic Development Board (EDB) when he was involved in persuading multi-national corporations to set up shop in Singapore.
Faced with a lack of trained workers, the EDB offered these companies a "package deal", where the agency would fund the training of Singapore workers, who would go on to take up managerial positions in these companies.
But the process of "glocalisation" - where multi-nationals globalise their operations but localise their workforce - is more challenging in Singapore because of its relatively low unemployment rate.
"So we said, 'How about this? You don't have to localise your workforce to the extreme'," Mr Lim said.
Instead, foreign companies would be persuaded to allow Singaporeans to form the core of their operations here.
"If we do it in this way, over time the industry will sink roots in Singapore. So when the companies think about moving out of Singapore, they've got to think about the core of Singaporean workers. This core has taken them five years, 10 years, 20 years to invest. Why would they give it up?" said Mr Lim.
- CNA/ir -
another predictable concern is the increasing no. of PhDs and Masters...i call it Overqualified Unemployment ...a mismatch between market demands, income expectations and overqualified workforce..
haiz.....
-
wah. i just read a page of bull.
-
Bull and crap.
He is not contributing to help people , never he has before and now and will never in future.
Talk who don't know.
-
Originally posted by winsomeea:
Bull and crap.
He is not contributing to help people , never he has before and now and will never in future.
Talk who don't know.
politicians are like that. dun bother reading or following what he has to say. I follow Jim Rogers advise lol. he doesnt bother listening to what the FED chairman Bernanke is saying, cos he is wrong since he been in office.
so why you bother? politicians like to make statements and speeches, its their job.
-
Taking note of what he said and hoping one day he will be asked to go.
He is good for nothing staying on to suck our money, millions some more.
-
Originally posted by winsomeea:
Taking note of what he said and hoping one day he will be asked to go.
He is good for nothing staying on to suck our money, millions some more.
then you have to question, why PAP recruited people like him into their party?
has PAP lost ability to recruit talented people into their fold, or their so called elite selection committee has selection problems in itself
-
on a side note, his teochew accent is very strong when he speaks english
-
yes. He is a "helicopter"/
-
what u mean by helicopter?
-
That is a term used by some people to refer to Chinese educated.
-
Originally posted by winsomeea:
That is a term used by some people to refer to Chinese educated.
is it derogatory? then whats the term used for people educated in english? -
Originally posted by Rooney_07:
is it derogatory? then whats the term used for people educated in english?
I don't know, guess it is up to personal perception. No term used for English educated. -
I am wondering why use helicopter to mean chinese educated? must be derogatory.
-
May be it is meant to be derogatory. I was told they don't pronounce the English words properly, sound ter ter he he , that is how it comes about.
-
haha flied rice.......its fried rice you moron......lethal weapon movie
time flies, no more lethal weapon no more
-
Originally posted by Rooney_07:
is it derogatory? then whats the term used for people educated in english?
its submarine -
is that from template a, b or c?
-
its neither a helicopter or submarine.....its a man falling from a block of flats into a reservoir.
-
sound likie bullsheet again. why the market must expand then wages will increas? from what i see market expands, more jobs but all taken by foreigners and fake sgreans they can take fukin lower than the cury puff price wages sgreans got fucked form our jobs and have to take even lower pay work longer hours or worse no jobs at all like that sounds reasonable? don make sense on the gorund level so someone pleas eh help me understadn better?
-
is PAP showin thier mistakes done?
-
Originally posted by FireIce:
wah. i just read a page of bull.
-
Times are bad.
So I tell everybody "Times are bad".