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Funeral over then point finger?
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Dip in productivity but rate still respectable
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Goh Chin Lian
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MANPOWER Minister Gan Kim Yong is not losing sleep over the slide in productivity last year.
It is typical when there is a surge in new jobs, he said, pointing to the boom period before the Asian financial crisis erupted in July 1997.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>Raising productivity
Three strategies Singapore is following to raise productivity:
Investing in training of workers;
Redesigning jobs for higher-skilled workers; and
Bringing in new investments and encouraging companies to use new technology.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Besides, productivity in developed economies like Britain's show that Singapore's mature economy is far from being a laggard. In those economies, productivity growth averages 2 per cent a year against Singapore's 3 per cent.
'It is therefore not correct to conclude that the weaker productivity performance was due to the increased presence of foreign workers,' he said yesterday.
On the contrary, a flexible policy on foreign labour had enabled companies to grow and add jobs, he added.
Mr Gan was replying to Mrs Josephine Teo (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC), who had asked if the influx of low-skilled and low-wage foreign workers had contributed to Singapore's productivity decline.
It dived below zero to -0.9 per cent last year, the first dip in six years.
She also wanted to know if the decline implied that efforts in skills upgrading and job redesign were ineffective.
Mr Gan set the figures in perspective.
Productivity tends to fluctuate from year to year. It is best to look at the figures over a longer period 'instead of drawing conclusions on the basis of a few quarters' or a single year's data', he said.
Over an extended period, Singapore's productivity growth averaged 3 per cent a year from 2002 to last year, a 'respectable rate' for a mature economy, he said.
It beats developed countries such as Britain, Australia, Germany and the United States, where productivity growth averages around 2 per cent or less.
Also, the record number of jobs created here last year is partly responsible for the productivity decline.
New jobs peaked at 234,900 last year , far above the average 116,500 jobs added each year, between 2003 and last year.
As labour productivity is computed as the value of each worker's output, it is inevitable that productivity will decline when the surge in workers is not accompanied by a corresponding rise in output. So, Mr Gan called for a redoubling of efforts to boost productivity in the long run and pinpointed three strategies Singapore is following as the way to go.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Dip in productivity but rate still respectable
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Goh Chin Lian
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MANPOWER Minister Gan Kim Yong is not losing sleep over the slide in productivity last year.
It is typical when there is a surge in new jobs, he said, pointing to the boom period before the Asian financial crisis erupted in July 1997.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>Raising productivity
Three strategies Singapore is following to raise productivity:
Investing in training of workers;
Redesigning jobs for higher-skilled workers; and
Bringing in new investments and encouraging companies to use new technology.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Besides, productivity in developed economies like Britain's show that Singapore's mature economy is far from being a laggard. In those economies, productivity growth averages 2 per cent a year against Singapore's 3 per cent.
'It is therefore not correct to conclude that the weaker productivity performance was due to the increased presence of foreign workers,' he said yesterday.
On the contrary, a flexible policy on foreign labour had enabled companies to grow and add jobs, he added.
Mr Gan was replying to Mrs Josephine Teo (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC), who had asked if the influx of low-skilled and low-wage foreign workers had contributed to Singapore's productivity decline.
It dived below zero to -0.9 per cent last year, the first dip in six years.
She also wanted to know if the decline implied that efforts in skills upgrading and job redesign were ineffective.
Mr Gan set the figures in perspective.
Productivity tends to fluctuate from year to year. It is best to look at the figures over a longer period 'instead of drawing conclusions on the basis of a few quarters' or a single year's data', he said.
Over an extended period, Singapore's productivity growth averaged 3 per cent a year from 2002 to last year, a 'respectable rate' for a mature economy, he said.
It beats developed countries such as Britain, Australia, Germany and the United States, where productivity growth averages around 2 per cent or less.
Also, the record number of jobs created here last year is partly responsible for the productivity decline.
New jobs peaked at 234,900 last year , far above the average 116,500 jobs added each year, between 2003 and last year.
As labour productivity is computed as the value of each worker's output, it is inevitable that productivity will decline when the surge in workers is not accompanied by a corresponding rise in output. So, Mr Gan called for a redoubling of efforts to boost productivity in the long run and pinpointed three strategies Singapore is following as the way to go.
