Today, Singapore faces many challenges, such as an aging population, low birth rate and slowing global economy. Our low unemployment rate of 2% is encouraging but manpower shortage and slow wage growth remain two of the most crucial concerns that we have to overcome.
As a small open economy, Singapore is very much affected by what happens in our region and beyond. If the EU and the US economies, which account for nearly 50 percent of global demand, continue to struggle, our economy will also be affected.
As we celebrate May Day, let us reaffirm our brand of constructive tripartism, one that must continue to strike a fair balance between the concerns of workers and businesses.
As we aim to reduce our dependency of foreign manpower, we need to look for sustainable high quality workers. I believe that we need to secure migrant workers with the right technical skills, as well as the social adaptability.
As Singapore goes through a period of a slower economic and job growth over the medium and longer term over the next 10 to 20 years, the Labour Movement identified 3 challenges and necessary mind-sets to overcome challenges.
From a policy perspective, I am glad that Ministry of Manpower has taken my suggestion and is seriously looking into labour market testing, tightening the Employment Pass and ‘S’ pass framework
The world economy as we know it is still very much in flux. Unemployment and underemployment rates remain high globally. In the euro area, unemployment in January was 11.9%, simply put, 19 million people are out of jobs.
With the evolving economy, we are seeing swift changes to job options. More Singaporeans are becoming self-employed as taxi drivers, adult educators and tour guides for example
My key message to all Singaporean employers is to value every worker – and treat all employees with the dignity and fairness they deserve. Moving forward, we have to ensure that as we recalibrate our workforce numbers, that we are fair to all workers –
