I am not a fan of Citigroup. But I agree with this economist .
When the labor cost is one of the main engines for growth, what kind of quality of workforce are we expecting?

Middle east construction workers come from all over the world. The difference is they are paid handsomely and some i think are tax free.

some say you pay monkey get peanuts.
some say you pay millions and millions no corruption.

How about singapore workforce?

Does TOC intend to do a deeper study and report on sustaining Singapore’s economy.

I think views and analysis are important in today’s competitive news market.

Going to be Dubai 2.
Massive import of foreigners sustaining a very over-heated property market.
The difference—free issue of PR status to one and all.

#3,

I agree on the influx will be if not already is like Dubai.
But we need to consider that FTs in Dubai are highly paid compared to them working elsewhere.

A lot of white collar or blue collars with education end up as taxi drivers. Unemployment is now at 6%, up from 3% and rising. So how?

where’s the one who shouted “cheaper, better, faster?” he will be pleased to see the potential outcome of such calls.

Why is it that Singaporean think that they are losing their jobs to new citizens and PRs only? It’s the avalanche of the S-Passes (not forgetting the employment passes also) issued that screwed up the job market in Singapore! How many S-passes are being issued during the past 2-3 year? How many employers exploited the loopholes on employing these S-pass holders? Most of whom are from the third world countries. Some even have multiply degrees and are willing to take a clerk position for $1,100. Can our own degree holders survive on this pay less CPF in Singapore? Can we beat these “cheaper, better, faster” S-pass holders? Don’t forget they don’t need to do NS, and can work overtime with no complains!

AMID the gloom in the labour market, there is a silver lining.

Although the number of Singapore residents who lost their jobs hit 5.9 per cent in June – on a non-seasonally adjusted basis – older workers were able to stay on in the workforce at the record high level reached in 2008.

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_460783.html

The fact is all of the unemployed are Singaporeans. The Shitty Times is nothing but a mouthpiece of the MIW. Not willing to given the bad news like it is.

Anyway this policy of flooding Singapore with cheap foreign labour is definitely unsustainable for Singaporeans. If this policy continues, every Singaporean will be out of a job and depending on Charity.

Wake up! Wake UP! It is time for change.

Nov 30, 2009
More on contract terms

MORE firms are hiring workers on short-term contract as a way to manage their manpower cost.

The ranks of Singapore residents on contract employment has continued to rise, driven by those on short term contracts.

The number on term contracts rose 4.3 per cent to 197,200 in June, faster than the 0.8 rise in permanent employees.

Consequently, the share of resident employees on term contracts rose from 12.4 per cent in 2008 to 12.7 per cent in 2009, continuing the uptrend observed since the data were first collected in 2006, according to the Labour Force Survey conducted in mid-2009 by the Ministry of Manpower’s Research and Statistics Department.

‘The growth in 2009 was mainly driven by those on short-term contracts of less than three months, including casual and on-call workers, reflecting economic uncertainty,’ said the MOM in a statement.

As a result of the weak economy, growth in income from work was largely flat this year, following strong gains in the last two years. The median monthly income among full-timers rose slightly by 0.5 per cent from $2,590 in June last year to $2,600 this year, compared to gains of 11 per cent in 2008 and 7.7 per cent in 2007.

Part-timers also posted higher median income of $620 compared with $600 a year ago. However, the median income for all employed residents dipped by 1.2 per cent from $2,450 in 2008 to $2,420 in 2009, as part-timers’ share of employment rose.

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_460787.html

Does this mean that our unemployment rate is actually much higher than 5.9% because those who are on even short contracts of less than 3 months are not included as unemployed.

The facts and figures are twisted and presented is quite confusing and probably meant to mislead.

This PM Lee’s “Economic progress at ALL COSTS” is definitely not sustainable.

Plus, the uncontrolled and relentless import of foreigners as workers, talents, PRs and New Citizens, have aggravated and will aggregate the situation further. It is only a matter of time when the whole economy will simply collapse, even with our strong reserves and savings (that is, if Temasek and GIC do not already caused a huge hole during their last happy-go-lucky shopping spree in 2007-2008).

Paying the ministers the world’s highest salary is a great mistake. Instead of luring top talents, we are seeing half-bake talents without any innovative ideas masquerading themselves as ‘outstanding talents’.

The blunders in Mas Selamat’s easy escape, the huge losses of taxpayers’ money caused by Temasek and GIC, the spiraling HDB prices caused by unrestrained profiteers (just to name a few), have easily demonstrated to all of us the real quality of the so-called “outstanding talents”

Outstanding talents? My foot! Only outstanding thing about them is outstanding in self-enriching with millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money!

Importing foreign labour is one thing. How many long, and for how long???

How about the calibre?

How do we ensure we take in only the essential? Criminals also can???? We should be looking at the kind of PRs and S-pass holders. Unfortunately, this gahmen is too chicken to release relevant statistics. You can be sure they have it – after all the applicants have forms to fill and there are software app to crunch the data. No wonder some Singaporeans refer to them as foreign “trash”…

I am of course one who agrees with the economist. Else, what do you think i am here posting comments?

Can there be so many more jobs created by the time population hits 6.5million?
Was this implemented with a plan to create so many more jobs?

Ya lor, financial crisis predictable and that is why it is a crisis. These are not FTs but new citizens. You cannot get rid of them unless their migrate again. The next financial crisis what happens when population hits 4,5,6,6.5 million?

Don’t believe any crap the MSM come out with. They always publish figuares to suit their master’s whims and fancies! If they are unable to cover-up, they will pluck any figuares from thin air to justify their purposes!
A simple calculation will tell us that there are more jobless Singaporeans out there than meets the eyes. Has the Government created enough jobs during the last two years to cater for the locals including those who are still jobless since the last financial crisis? How many foreign investments have they attracted? How many foreign factories have set out their operations here? The numbers of jobs created whether by local or foreign firms just do not match the numbers of jobless Singaporeans, not forgetting the high influx of foreigners adding to the woe!
The MOM and the minister is at his wits’ end. The two IRs were supposed to ease the unemployment situation. We are less than 2 months shy of 1 IR’s opening and less than 6 month’s for the other. You think the employment situation will improve by then? The answer is obvious.

the incomin ir casinos will employed more foreigners than singaporeans
this 1 i know donkey years ago…. we simply do not have the TALENTED cards dealers..they ain’t no stephen ch ow/chowyunfatt or liuterwah

New election slogan for the PAP in this coming election: “CHEAPER BETTER FASTER ” citizens and mind you they are not referring to the born and bred singaporeans.

They are refering to the new citizens the CHEAPER BETTER FASTER TALENTS that they have accquired for one third the price they have to pay to born and bred ture singaporeans.

So the job losses is allour very own singaporeans because as it has been said more are employing so called “Foreign Talents” who also happen to be the lay persons who are willing to work for peanuts even if they have a degree cos they are first of all given citizenship and also a lifestyle that the government provides for them to assimilate inot our society so that they will vote for the PAP in the next election.

So cut all the crap about your concern for us singaporeans. We know best and we know what you are doing and rest assured we will definitely want CHEAPER BETTER FASTER but in this case it is a CHEAPER BETTER FASTER -NEW GOVERNMENT!