SINGAPORE: The Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) secretary-general Chee Soon Juan “misunderstood” data from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and in doing so, “painted an alarmist picture of the job market for Singaporeans”, MOM said on Wednesday (May 4).
In the SDP’s rally for the Bukit Batok by-election on Tuesday, Dr Chee had said: “In all of last year, the Government created only 100 jobs. Yes, you heard it right, 100 jobs for citizens and permanent residents. That means, one job per constituency. Voters of Bukit Batok, only one job was created per constituency. How many of you voters here think you are going to fight for that one job if and when you are retrenched?”
MOM said in a statement on Wednesday that the increase in local employment that Dr Chee refers to is not the total number of new jobs taken by locals in 2015. It refers instead to the difference between total number of locals entering jobs and those leaving jobs, for example owing to retirement, MOM stated.
“This difference, or the ‘net’ number of new jobs taken by locals, was 700 in 2015 and it does not reflect the total number of new jobs for locals,” the ministry added.
Preliminary estimates released by MOM in January found that employment of locals increased marginally by 100 in 2015, after growing strongly by 96,000 in 2014.
However the ministry later revised the figure to 700 in the Labour Market Developments report released on Mar 15.
Despite the slowdown in net local employment growth, most Singaporeans looking for jobs are able to find one, MOM said, reiterating a point it made in its report in March.
“The basic reality is that our local workforce growth has slowed,” the ministry said. It attributed this to smaller cohorts of younger workers entering the workforce; larger baby boomer cohorts exiting it; and Singapore’s employment rate of 80.5 per cent for residents aged 25 to 64 which is “already relatively high by international standards and cannot grow much further”.
These trends are expected to persist in the medium term due to our demographic realities, MOM said. “This is why we are stepping up efforts in industry transformation - to create not just more jobs but better quality jobs for our people,” the ministry stated.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/chee-misunderstood-mom/2756348.html
In the SDP’s rally for the Bukit Batok by-election on Tuesday, Dr Chee had said: “In all of last year, the Government created only 100 jobs. Yes, you heard it right, 100 jobs for citizens and permanent residents. That means, one job per constituency. Voters of Bukit Batok, only one job was created per constituency. How many of you voters here think you are going to fight for that one job if and when you are retrenched?”
MOM said in a statement on Wednesday that the increase in local employment that Dr Chee refers to is not the total number of new jobs taken by locals in 2015. It refers instead to the difference between total number of locals entering jobs and those leaving jobs, for example owing to retirement, MOM stated.
“This difference, or the ‘net’ number of new jobs taken by locals, was 700 in 2015 and it does not reflect the total number of new jobs for locals,” the ministry added.
Preliminary estimates released by MOM in January found that employment of locals increased marginally by 100 in 2015, after growing strongly by 96,000 in 2014.
However the ministry later revised the figure to 700 in the Labour Market Developments report released on Mar 15.
Despite the slowdown in net local employment growth, most Singaporeans looking for jobs are able to find one, MOM said, reiterating a point it made in its report in March.
“The basic reality is that our local workforce growth has slowed,” the ministry said. It attributed this to smaller cohorts of younger workers entering the workforce; larger baby boomer cohorts exiting it; and Singapore’s employment rate of 80.5 per cent for residents aged 25 to 64 which is “already relatively high by international standards and cannot grow much further”.
These trends are expected to persist in the medium term due to our demographic realities, MOM said. “This is why we are stepping up efforts in industry transformation - to create not just more jobs but better quality jobs for our people,” the ministry stated.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/chee-misunderstood-mom/2756348.html
