Leong Sze Hian
Despite a slight increase in GDP in the third quarter of this year, Singapore’s labour market, as well as the earnings and productivity of resident workers have not recovered.
A report released yesterday by the Ministry of Manpower reveals a surprising trend – it seems that PMETs and degree holders were among the hardest hit by the poor job market in the period from September 2008 to the same time this year, even more so than residents with secondary education.
Both degree holders and secondary-school educated residents – which include Singaporeans and Permanent Residents (PRs) — registered above-average increases in unemployment rate with the former increasing by 1.67 times while the later by 1.58 times, said the Labour Market Third Quarter 2009 Report.
Mature residents aged 40 and over also posted larger increase in unemployment rate over the year than those in their 30s or younger. Mature residents made up about half (49% or 41,000) of the resident job seekers in September this year, up from 2008 (45% or 25,300). In fact, the number of mature resident job seekers had increased by 15,700, or 62 percent, compared to a year ago.
Perhaps the older or more educated you are, the harder it was to get a job.
SPUR ineffective for PMETs?
The share of Professionals, Managers, Executives, and Technicians (PMETs) among workers made redundant rose from 43% in Q2 09 to 51% in the third quarter, overtaking production & related workers (34%) and clerical, sales & service workers (15%) as the leading occupational group among redundant workers.
What this may suggest is that the call to re-train and upgrade skills and education by the government, spearheaded by the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) initiative, might not have worked very well from the perspective of those who upgrade to become PMETs, since their redundancy rate is now the highest.
Slightly over one in three of the residents made redundant were in their 30s (34%) or degree holders (36%), disproportionately higher than their representation in the workforce (26% and 27% respectively).
This is in spite of the data in the report that “PMETs made up the largest share of vacancies (15,400 or 44%) in September this year, followed by production & transport operators, cleaners & labourers (9,900 or 29%) and clerical, sales & service workers (9,500 or 27%).”
So, although job vacancies available were the highest for PMETs, they had the highest redundancy rate and the largest increase in the unemployment rate.
The re-employment rate — those who were re-employed within six months of retrenchment — was quite low (37.3%) for those above 50 years old but even worse at 44.4% for degree holders.
While it was indicated in the report that Singapore’s real GDP grew by 0.6% in September this year from a year ago, following three consecutive quarters of contraction. At first glance, the growth might be seen as a sign that the economy might be showing the green shoots of recovery, but a deeper analysis reveals otherwise.
Overall labour market weak
Looking at the overall labour market, a rise in unemployment of 0.4% among residents June to September this year was registered. In the report, the rise is attributed to residents who had deferred their job search and pursued improvement courses amid the difficult job market.
The seasonally adjusted overall (which includes foreigners) unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.4% in September this year from 3.3% a quarter ago. The resident labour force rate – consisting of Singaporeans and PRs — increased to 5.0% in September this year. This followed the decline from 4.8% in March to 4.6% in June.
However, the question of how the resident unemployment rate could increase from June to September remains unanswered. Workers undergoing training, or are not actively seeking jobs for more than six months, are left out of the unemployment statistics.
So, are we saying that these residents have now decided to start searching for jobs again because the job market is no longer perceived as difficult? Are lesser residents are pursuing courses?
Perhaps these factors could have led to the worsening of the unemployment rate, but there is no way to know for sure.
The report mentioned that “nevertheless, the unemployment rates were still below the peak (overall: 4.8%;resident: 6.2%) experienced in September 2003 due to the SARS outbreak.” However, this is akin to saying that it’s getting worse, but it’s not as bad as the worst ever! Some consolation for Singaporeans who are unemployed!
In fact, the seasonally adjusted figure for unemployed residents was 100,300 in September, higher than the 91,500 in June this year, which is around the time the recession began.
Earnings and income down while living expenses go up
Despite the good news in GDP growth, labour productivity fell over the year by 0.7% from the third quarter of last year, and nominal earnings – which do not take inflation into account — decreased over the year by 3.0% over the same period of time. After adjusting for negative inflation however, the decline in real earnings was 2.6%, deeper than the contraction in the preceding quarter
While earnings have continued to fall, HDB property taxes, HDB new flat prices, school bus fees, and other expenses have gone up.
In fact, real earnings have fallen for six consecutive quarters by a cumulative 17.9%, reversing almost all the gains in earnings for the last three years or so, in the first quarter of 2007.
While the educated and the older workers seem to be the hardest hit by the recession, the unemployment rate for cleaners, labourers and related workers was still the highest across all sectors in June 2009 at 8.3 percent, said the MOM’s Workforce 2009 report released earlier this year.
The above figures fly in the face of the argument that since Singaporeans do not want such jobs, foreign workers are needed to fill up the vacancies. If this is indeed the case, then why is it that the unemployment rate was the highest for this category?
What this may mean is that when residents who worked as cleaners and labourers lost their jobs and started looking for similar ones, they failed because younger foreign workers have generally replaced them in the food-courts and the airport toilets.
It seems that living conditions for the worst-off in Singapore have not improved significantly.
According to my calculations using data from the Department of Statistics’ Household Expenditure Survey Report (HES) released on 2 December 2009, the bottom 20% of households’ income declined by 0.3% in nominal terms from 1998 to 2008, and the 21st to 40th quintile households’ income increased by only 0.9% in real terms —accounting for inflation.
Marrying the latest MOM Labour Market report which has data until September this year, with the HES which has data until 2008, we can surmise that about 40% of households may hardly have had any real increase in income over the last 10 years or so.
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actually as i was thinking about this today, a thought just kinda got into my head, linking knowledge work (that has possibly a correlation if not causation with productivity), pay, and possibly the PMET category.
to hire people to “mash” people, manage people, and to solve problems, that’s pretty much a knowledge worker game. you need to find resources and enable people to do their work. this increases productivity across the board.
what we are seeing now is monkeys are being made managers being paid peanuts (not 65k). they do not have the knowledge, nor the skills, nor the ability to bring up productivity, let alone experience. all what they are is headcount (fill the spot), get paid a lower salary (although pretty much my speculation), then it follows that the department/company has “lowered labour costs”, and hence being able to do more with less (have a headcount with less money), and the person who makes the decision becomes the “bright” one.
this lowering of productivity and labour costs can be very worrying. for one, an organization/company can only be good as long as there is a good system. it doesn’t matter how brilliant you are, as long as the system doesn’t allow you to be good, you can fail. On the other hand, if you are average, but the system is able to stretch your ability, or it has fail safes and accountability, everybody can actually chime in and deliver the end product(s).
what singapore is lacking, over the years, is doing the same thing over and over again. this was not how we catapulted our way from 3rd world to a perhaps more developed model in the 90s.
true, we copied japan’s model. but we have reached a stage where copying doesn’t freaking work anymore, thanks to the knowledge economy and also the stage of our economic development.
but our “leaders” are still stuck in the “third world to developed economy world” planning and thinking. we didn’t move forward, we are simply stuck, ran out of ideas, and behaving like a headless chicken, not unlike people trying to guess the number of toto/4D.
this wanton haphazard plonking resources into areas just by hearsay is ridiculous. just because X says biotech is good, or Y says blah, is no different from people hearing the auspicious numbers from a priest, from a car accident etc.
we need better structural long-term planning before hedging our bets. this is our national economy we are talking about. without the economy, people won’t have jobs, then it follows that people can’t afford food, education and healthcare.
we need to move forward in optimizing business processes, we need to invest in knowledge workers and enable them to do something more unique and creative. instead, we stifle them by putting more bureaucracy and rules and make sure they take instructions, follow instructions, and not voice any dissent. worse, we simply rely on this very stranglehold of bureaucracy, worship it, and import workers to fill the headcount because with bureaucracy, people are but robots carrying out specific instructions.
what has happened is that the world has moved on to the knowledge economy, Singapore has arrived by hardware (infrastructure), but we knowingly and willingly slipped back into the 3rd world economy.
As a 3rd world economy, we cannot compete on these same terms with China and India. They are larger, have larger domestic consumption, and have more resources than we have.
Not only we have lost our competitive advantage, we are told that we have to join that club. Why? Have we gone mad? I don’t know.
I didn’t major in economics or am doing anything in finance. As just a layman, all these things are just screaming insane at me, and I tremble in fear whenever I think about it.
I am sure many PMETs must be wondering why they are going for reservist training when it is the cause of them losing their jobs to cheap foreign labour. They must also be wondering why they have to sacrifice their lives so that more cheap foreign labour can come in and take the jobs of their children as well?
When the opposition takes power after the next GE, can we abolish NS and just have a professional army?
A Change Is Gonna Come
I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I’ve been running ever since
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
It’s been too hard living but I’m afraid to die
Cause I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keep telling me don’t hang around
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
Then I go to my brother
And I say brother help me please
But he winds up knocking me
Back down on my knees
Ohhhhhh…..
There been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able to carry on
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
Refer to Comment (27) by David :
” I thought PAP needs talent in Singapore? Why is local PMET still jobless since these are the pool of people with talent. Please do not force a PMET to learn customer serving skills and become a waiter by calling this ‘UPGRADING”. Why can’t our govt come out straight to Singaporean by telling them that if they need job, they need to “downgrade” instead of “upgrade”.
Sure, every country needs talents. The fact that there are local PMETs still being jobless while the government is still trying hard to bring in foreign talents explained what many of you may not like to hear.
I guess this is the best I could put it without hurting some people’s pride.
52) shibuyume
i agree with you. we should tweak our economic model because obviously attracting foreign MNCs for low tech manufacturing is reaching its limits.
I think the future of Singapore jobs will be
1) Frontline services for lower skilled workers
2) Professional services, High Tech Manufacturing
for higher skilled (mass hiring i.e. hire alot of people)
3) R&D for higher skilled (niche hiring)
4) Entrepreneur
PMET unemployment is high because the banking sector is doing badly. in those golden days, banks hire anyone with random qualifications (that have nth to do with finance) to sell financial products. Of course, with the Lehman Bros debacle, we found out that it is a bad idea, and that means banks will not hire so many people in future. We need a substitute of jobs for this group of people.
The govt is channelling these grads into SMEs through some incentive programs. I am not sure how well is it working, but i think that will be a gd idea in the long run because it infuse talent into the SMEs. But the problem is this scheme is essentially a knee-jerk idea to the recession, and may not produce the best outcomes as these grads are not prepared for these jobs. Perhaps when this crisis is over, university education can be relooked at providing essential skills for
entrepeunership as foundation courses or infuse practical experiences thru internships. Basically to change the mix to more “SMU students”, so we have a more balanced ratio of grad workers to grad entrepreneur
i think the group (2) jobs are going to grow slowly at best. We should try to take the opportunity to channel people to group (4), to not only alleviate unemployment of workers, but to create employers that will create more jobs.
Refer to Comment (26) by [lim] :
“Do you expect the PMETs to lower their expectations to those from 3rd world countries? The foreigners can accept lower pay, share a flat with a few others, and their savings allow their families back home to have a better live, but can singaporeans do the same?
By accepting same level of pay as foreigners, pay off all those bills, loans, contribute 20% to cpf, they aren’t left with much, if anything, to feed their children and parents, who are living in high-cost-of-living singapore, and not some low-cost-of-living 3rd world countries.. ”
Lowering your expectation to a 3rd world country is not enough, you got to be productive, creative and adopt a positive attitude in order to win the competition! Obviously you have not attended those re-training programs which are generously sponsored by the government and carefully designed to meet today’s market requirements! It is time to lower your pride and enrol for the program – I heard it is virtually free of charge, though feedback from participants seemed to indicate that they were happy with the program.
@56) RW on December 17th, 2009 3.48 am
“…PMET unemployment is high because the banking sector is doing badly….”
This view was echoed somewhere by another commenter. Don’t know why this perception — maybe from people with VERY narrow feel of the ground, or don’t know apple from orange, or just reading from prepared answers, or just disinformation for the masses, etc…
But for anyone, please drive around in Tuas and Pioneer areas where the factories are (or were?). Easily 2-3 km of them are empty, kaput. Didn’t know we had more banks than that.
57) My Views on December 17th, 2009 3.54 am
You are not telling us everything. There is another thing Singaporeans could do.
We could vote for Change. We could vote for an end to tyranny and injustice.
We could make it the turn of those incompetent multi-million dollars ministers and MPs to feel what it is like to be unemployed.
In fact, from my numerous discussions with my fellow Singaporeans, this is the step that most of them are going to take.
I think 57)My View is trying to be satirical… my friend’s brother who lost his job as a manager of a hotel wanted to teach some hospitality course in a poly, but is required to go get a cert from MOE which requires him to attend classes – for a fee of $1000.
Perhaps My View is not understanding the sense of disillusionment that many PMETs in their 40s-50s feel when after being told a degree ensures a stable job, to suddenly have their whole lives turned upside down with the liberal foreign talent policy, and having to settle for jobs which pay less than half of what they used to earn – which they might still find tolerable if not for the financial burden they have to bear, and the increased cost of living IN SPITE of the recession.
On the good side, I really do enjoy my taxi rides more now, because I get to engage in really intelligent conversations with cab drivers who are degree holders.
“you’ve got to be productive, creative and adopt a positive attitude in order to win the competition!”
Cheaper, better, faster… and happier?
My Views,
Oh! Come on, please! Don’t feed us those same old tired cliches. This has absolutely nothing to do with globalisation or what have you. It is just a deliberately policy to keep Singaporeans down so that they continue to slog away at very low salaries. We have seen this all before. All their policies have failed except the one to grow the economy by suppressing the wages of Singaporeans.
As soon as Singaporeans believe they have attained a comfortable standard of living, they change the goalpost. Wages go down and prices go up. Wake up. Things are not going to change if they remain in power.
Now you tell us to work hard to compete with desperate foreigners from around the region. What happens when the MIW start bringing in starving workers from Africa who are willing to work for food and accomodation? Are you going to tell Singaporeans to do the same?
Personally, I am disgusted by people like yourself who think only of their own interests. You may be an elite or an employer who benefits from cheap foreign workers so it is obvious why you would want the MIW to remain in power.
Singaporeans have no choice but to vote for the opposition. It is either that or be treated as 3rd class citizens in their own country.
“Lowering your expectation to a 3rd world country is not enough, you got to be productive, creative and adopt a positive attitude in order to win the competition!”
have you gotten the slightest intuition productivity, creativity and positive attitude can only do so much as any basic cost of operation & living & experimenting in this small tight (going even tighter) country is not made any easier (if not worst) by a range of rent-seeking & restricting activities by those fat cats.
our country one of the 10th costliest country in the world and 2nd in Asia (outside Japan) with no resources at all.
“Lowering your expectation to a 3rd world country is not enough, you got to be productive, creative and adopt a positive attitude in order to win the competition!”
have you gotten the slightest intuition that productivity, creativity and positive attitude can only do so much as any basic cost of operation & living & experimenting in this small tight (going even tighter) country is not made any easier (if not worst) by a range of rent-seeking & restricting activities by those fat cats.
our country one of the 10th costliest country in the world and 2nd in Asia (outside Japan) with no resources at all.
Here is a real life example of what is wrong with the FT policy:
My sister’s friend (a retired teacher of English) saw a ad in the paper for a tuition job run by a Korean American to teach English to Koreans expat kids. Work 5 days week from 3.30 pm to 8.30pm and get 4k monthly pay. Great right, who would not want such a fantastic job, but guess what, citeria as follows:
1) Must be native speaker or Korean
2) Cannot be of other skin colour except Angmo/Korean
So obviously did not get the job, but guess who did? A 24 year old China lady! Yes she qualifies as a native speaker coz she studied in a International school in beijing. She did not take the job. Why? Coz she wants her week night free (for God know what activity).
Moral of the story, 1) foreigners come here creates jobs for Singaporean is just hogwash. They give jobs to their own kind. 2) Who says locals are choosy, foreigners are even more calculative.
Well unless anyone is from the elites pappy, all are being affected negatively or will be affected (age is not generally a plus point in employment). Pappy can feed themselves fat fat, shelter from economic storms, while the rest of us are suffering.
Got good things, they take the big share, you can have the droppings or leftovers.
Got bad things, you take all in the disguise for the better of our nation.
(classical example: GST to help the poor, which clown say these words?)
Thats their mantra.
If native Singaporeans are falling behind because “the spurs are not stuck into the hide,” that is their problem. – LKY
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/singapore/jacobson-text/7
58) theforgottengeneration
“But for anyone, please drive around in Tuas and Pioneer areas where the factories are (or were?). Easily 2-3 km of them are empty, kaput. Didn’t know we had more banks than that.”
i thought the focus of the discussion is on PMET which is professionals, managers, executives and technicians? how does closure of factories have to do with PMET unemployment?
in any case, manufacturing has been slowly moving out of singapore to indonesia, china etc. i don’t think there is anything we can do to attract them back into sg, except to go for high tech manufacturing. But then again, those hire lesser people and higher skilled workers.
the problem with singapore is we are victims of our own success.
having developed within on generation, we are now force to change our economy structure and make people change industries within their working life.
Looking at the way the economy is restructuring, lower skilled workers will now have to go into service industries.
I’ve been self-employed in IT consulting for many years. In the course of my work , I’ve visited many IT depts of MNCs and SMEs. I’ve observed over the years these have been largely taken over en masse by Indian nationals followed by Indonesians, Viets, etc. even in the government sector. Which means many Singaporeans who invested their time and money in IT degrees/diplomas have become cautionary tales, no thanks to MIW’s liberal FT policies. So much for the IT Hub thingy.
Once a dept reaches critical mass in FTs as well as having FTs in key senior positions, and when they have to choose between employing another of their kind vis-a-vis a local, with identical skills, isn’t the choice obvious? Wee Shu Min once said: Stop whining and be a shop assistant. Oh wait, even that has been taken by PRCs!
Soory for our PMET. Lucky I never spend too much of my early days study too hard for the paper as it useless in finding jobs in our so called homeland. But I still worry for my daughter whom will have to face all this problem when she graudate. Let’s all vote for the change in the coming election. We just simply ask for rights as a citizens.
Singapore is not a country. It is a very large serviced apartment complex where you pay for so-called ‘public’ services priced using a cost+ model.
My Views
post #57 on December 17th, 2009 3.54 am
////Lowering your expectation to a 3rd world country is not enough,…////
would employers do just that to be fair? it always easier to demand others to go-the-extra-mile (GEMS?), when all 1 does is talk.
with a 3rd world mindset, how to win any competition? 3rd world employees, given a low wage are not keen to improve simply because there is little to SPUR them on.
our govt re-training programs do not work simply because, it actually downgrades the remunerations of the retrenched PMETs. from high or mid level skilled job to low skill 1, what kind of “skills upgrading” is that?
it would be a totally different matter if re-training the retrenched to a new job that offers an equal if not better remunerations than the previously held 1.
not sure about market requirement, but looks like our women will be maids soon (men already are NS cheap labour)! lol…
Don’t vote PAP also become maid, vote also become maid… I better sign up with my downstairs maid agency now before the agent fee gets even more expensive.
@67) RW on December 17th, 2009 10.54 am
“….i thought the focus of the discussion is on PMET which is professionals, managers, executives and technicians? how does closure of factories have to do with PMET unemployment?…”
RW, I am not sure if you know what you are writing. Pls clarify your above statement. Are you saying factories don’t employ PMETs, and PMET only exist in finance and banking sectors? The discussion exclude those in factories?
Your following 2 paragraphs make even less sense. But you have the benefit of doubt, so appreciate you clarify the above statement first. Then I may see your line of argument.
*WeirdFish*
On a separate view, since this is about degree holders, I personally feel that the education system most of us here were raised in has failed us. We grew up thinking that a degree will take us places, and we work hard in school without stopping to consider what we really want out of life or what we are passionate about or hone what we are good at. This has led to the current helplessness and a dependence on the government (*~conspiracy theory~* lol).
With automation, fresh graduate jobs are increasingly administrative and ‘cookie-cut’. Of course, these jobs anyone can do = companies are no longer bothered with actual talents (local or otherwise) and look to saving money by hiring someone cheap. At my previous job, we have plenty of hourly-paid temporary staff who have been with the company for 2+ years and who are far more competent than the job requires, and definitely more qualified than this other person (work pass holder; we deal with her so we know…) who got on the permanent payroll within 6 months of hire. And who also got pregnant within 6 months of that, and that’s her own business except who can help but not gossip about it?
To come back to the point: we were not taught to move on with the times or find a niche in an area in which we are passionate about. The fault lies not in Singaporeans, but in the lack of foresight our government has shown and is still showing. What we can do is to move on to better prospects elsewhere or find a niche that would push you out of this vicious cycle mess that we spun ourselves into. I’m trying to dig myself out of this hole, and it’s the passion that spurs me on.
If you have kids, don’t push them to study 24/7. Encourage them to explore hobbies and activities (school should be secondary when personal growth is affected). Don’t pigeon-hole them into “acceptable” activities (unless they cause physical harm; then monitor) because otherwise, they will just turn out to be like us.
On a separate note, I think it’s fine to encourage others to vote for the opposition because we need more diverse voices. But it is another to be so overly confident that change would be immediate and overpowering and for the better. Remember that we were born into the social world we are trapped in. There are boundaries not even the opposition would be able to break though. Plus 66% of Singaporeans voting for PAP = 98% of seats currently. Play the cards right.
[i]@67) RW on December 17th, 2009 10.54 am
i thought the focus of the discussion is on PMET which is professionals, managers, executives and technicians? how does closure of factories have to do with PMET unemployment? [/i]
i see technicians don’t worked in factories alon tuas or jurong
wah all this technicians must be either workin in boatquays or pukis…
right?
and tuas factories do not employed managers as well
all run by limsiasuayed dogs or lackies right?
Refer to Comment (71) [mice is nice].
Don’t be ridiculous! First and foremost, those PMETs lost their jobs because their skills were no longer required. The Government spent a fortune to re-skill them and recommended them jobs in new industries. They may be managers or even senior managers in their previous jobs and drawing perhaps $8,000 or $10,000 per month, but in the new jobs they lack the relevant experience (though they have the training), what do they expect? If the new employer has to pay $10,000 for a sales assistant, he or she will have no second thought of recruiting a foreigner costing probably $1,000 per month! Now you know why so many PMETs remain jobless for several years. Problem of attitude and refusal to face reality! As what some of the ministers said, “If Singaporeans are not willing to help themselves, why should we bother to help them?” Neatly summarised.
Refer to Comment (68) by [Local IT PMET = Cautionary tale] :
“I’ve observed over the years these have been largely taken over en masse by Indian nationals followed by Indonesians, Viets, etc. even in the government sector. Which means many Singaporeans who invested their time and money in IT degrees/diplomas have become cautionary tales, no thanks to MIW’s liberal FT policies. So much for the IT Hub thingy. ”
Why in the first place did so many Singaporeans allowed their jobs to be taken over by the Indians, Indonesians and Vietnamese? That is the key question and cause of the situation which you chose to ignore. Why? Answer the question and you will know it is Singaporeans themselves who created this current problem (and of course, also partly due to international competition).
#77, pertaining to the jobs taken by indians. I agreed with you that Singaporean themselves created this problem.
We’ve increased our cost of living so much that we need a higher pay to sustain our living and retirement which these indian just need to sustain cost of living and little saving for retirement in their country. Thus they can demand lower pay. Indian are patriotic regardless where they work, When there is a Indian at the head of the department, they will usually employ their same kind. Unlike Singaporean, we despise our own kind and prefer foreigner. Also, Indian find that our passport is so cheap but yet so useful, traveling without needing a visa almost everywhere. Last but not least, Singapore is a very good stepping stone for them to migrate to US, Canada, UK and Australia.
aiyoyo
some of my PMET frends kana retrenched,
they say very difficult to find job…
alamak new year coming,
hope PMETs can get back to working force again
is Elites helping out???
aiyoyo
Wow My View
Talk about rubbing salt into the wound.. or is this one of the bitter pills we spoilt people with no SPURS in our hides ungratefully refuse to swallow?
Hello My Views, do answer these question.
If you are the boss/employer, what is your main concern when you want to hire someone to work for you?
By the way, have you been a volunteer for a VWO which helps the less privilege or low income families?
May be you are just another paid cyber police trying to use cognitive psychology to moderate readers’ dissatisfaction. Are you a psychology graduate? Because you sounds very naive when it comes to Economics.
My Views
post #76 on December 19th, 2009 3.44 am
for what reason did these PMETs loose their jobs & their skills were no longer required? why did the govt spend a fortune re-skilling them? is it because they were responsible for their plight?
as for hiring sales assistant, no doubt employers will choose to hire staff at about $1000+ a month, have the salaries increased much over the past 10 years? not forgeting the increasing cost of living…
now how could anyone who previously earned $4000-$10000 be made to accept a drastic wage drop with a smiley face? how can any developed country progress when its people are earning so much less than before? individuals collectively are needed to sustain domestic consumption in retail & service sectors as more locals are trained & hired into these sectors touted as the emerging economic model.
you have been rather partial, haven’t you?
////If the new employer has to pay $10,000 for a sales assistant, he or she will have no second thought of recruiting a foreigner costing probably $1,000 per month!////
why do employers always demand staff to work “cheaper, better, faster”?
while the retrenched PMETs are given labels…
////Problem of attitude and refusal to face reality!////
have you given a thought about the reality those PMETs face when they loose their jobs at short notice? how about the reality of being made bankrupt or even homeless? or marriage turning sour leading to families breaking up due to financial woes?
S’pore needs a higher calibre of leaders with foresight & vision to avoid such crisis in future or at least better prepare it’s people way ahead to cushion the financial blow to individuals, make such a transition smoother without reducing the earnings.
the reality is employers have too much bargaining power, that is why they can get away with hiring staff who are hard pressed into a corner.
During the last recession, alot of PMETs lost their jobs. Till now many of them has not been able to find suitable jobs or are jobless. The situation is made worse by the govt. policy of opening the floodgate for the FTs & FWs to come in to fight for the already scarce and limited jobs in the market!
What has the govt. done to to create more jobs for this particular group of people?
So far there isn’t a workable solution from the govt. to solve the PMETs unemployment problem. As time passes,the PMETs feel that they are being marginalised, as they grow older, employers are reluctant to hire them. That’s why they are called the sandwiched group- neither up nor down, and most hard hit by the economic downturn! At their age between 45 odd to 50 odd they need the most financial expenses, having grown up children in the uni. or poly. on top of having the families to feed!
If things go the way as it is and nothing is being done to help them, many will definately vote for the opposition in the coming election so as to vent their frustrations. This is not a small group of PMETs out there!!
@84) Concerned Citizen on December 19th, 2009 6.54 pm
This sandwiched group will be swept under the carpet for the next 2-3 elections. By then, the imported PMETs should out-numbered them and all readily to vote the hand that feeds them. I must say that from the last recession till this recession, the govt has NOT nurtured any major industries/sector to absorb these displaced PMETs, save maybe the education sector and F1 racing! But unusually, the ministers’ pay during this period has skyrocketed to the current highest paid in the world.
Same tactics as with our birth rate issue — just act blur over the years until imports cover up the mistakes. Soon that generation of “mistakes” will be too old to further champion their cause and all will be forgotton – aka Japan’s WW2 atrocities experience.
The government insist on bringing in foreign talent depsite the fact that more degree holders and PMETs are unemployed. Instead of helping them get jobs they take the easy way and create more competition for them. Many employers are also not helping by refusing to give this group of people a chance despite the fact that they have many years of work experience and willing to take a pay cut.
“Singaporeans allowed their jobs to be taken over by the Indians, Indonesians and Vietnamese?”
Have you ever asked yourself such question.
With your current position, experience and commitments assuming that you are not from the circle of the protected lot, are you able to compete with Indian, Indonesian and Vietnamese who by any standard are most willing to work for less for the same position which a local is qualified to do.
If a position is lost to a cheaper local, it still stays with a local. If a position goes to a foreigner, it is lost to a foreigner with the local still facing the problem.
And do you think working Singaporeans, knowing where they stand in the whole equation, will allow or want this to happen to them. As for the influential key decision makers and employers, you may already know their motivation for their liberal policy on these Indian, Indonesian and Vietnamese, etc.
“If the new employer has to pay $10,000 for a sales assistant, he or she will have no second thought of recruiting a foreigner costing probably $1,000 per month!”
At least, you are decent enough to admit that this is actual downgrade of work.
As far as PMET are concerned, it is not lack of skill & experience but job openings of their level which also face similar set of problems by cheaper Indian, Indonesian and Vietnamese, etc.
Refer to Comment (83) by mice.
“why did the govt spend a fortune re-skilling them? is it because they were responsible for their plight?”
You don’t take care of your health and fell ill; the government made a generous subsidy to your medical bill; does that mean the government is responsible for your plight?
“have the salaries increased much over the past 10 years? not forgeting the increasing cost of living… ”
Why should salaries increase just because employees’ cost of living has gone up? Singaporeans must not be trapped by such a dangerous mind-set which destroyed so many developed and prosperous countries! It is highly irresponsible of you to make such a wick suggestion!
“now how could anyone who previously earned $4000-$10000 be made to accept a drastic wage drop with a smiley face?”
Why not? When your skill is no longer required, of course your pay is gone too! What happened to you?
“why do employers always demand staff to work “cheaper, better, faster”?”
Intense competition! What is your problem?
“S’pore needs a higher calibre of leaders with foresight & vision to avoid such crisis”
Comeon, the whole world is being affected badly! Singapore merely suffered a slight dent due to its leaders’ long-range foresight and vision.
My Views
post #88 on December 20th, 2009 3.22 pm
Part 1
////You don’t take care of your health and fell ill; the government made a generous subsidy to your medical bill; does that mean the government is responsible for your plight?////
a false assumption on your part, just like the PMETs who lost their jobs in large numbers, goes to show that sometimes there is only so much an individuals can do. likewise, those re-skilling programs for the retrenched are but a kneejerk response to “fix” a flaw in the economic policies.
////Why should salaries increase just because employees’ cost of living has gone up? Singaporeans must not be trapped by such a dangerous mind-set which destroyed so many developed and prosperous countries! It is highly irresponsible of you to make such a wick suggestion!////
dangerous mindset? isn’t this line of reasoning used so often by our public transport operators & S’pore Power (our utility service provider?) when oil or any other operating costs increase? maybe you are right, they will destroy S’pore! :P
your answer also seem rather myopic, if individuals who earn just enough to get by on a daily basis, it will have a negative long term effects.
- low domestic consumption at a time when more locals are trained & hired into retail & service sectors touted as the emerging economic model. (stated in my previous post)
- less people can afford to procreate, itself a national crisis if not already.
- people are the only resource S’pore has, how to be a magnet for the lofty hub dreams if we struggle to attract the best & the brightest foreign talents. we need a sizeable number of local talents to do that, S’pore stands to loose more then she gains going out of our way like now to attract them. does America need to lay red carpet? Shanghai?
continued below….
My Views
post #88 on December 20th, 2009 3.22 pm
Part 2
////Why not? When your skill is no longer required, of course your pay is gone too! What happened to you?////
the question is why were those skills no longer required? who’s fault? who is ultimately responsible for the loses?
////Intense competition! What is your problem?////
another myopic reply, you dun see the problem.
problem:
- social tension (cannot see, read more articles in online forums & MSM)
- increase stress levels. shapes people in negative ways, rude, ungracious, selfish, etc… 1 2 attract foreign talents details like people to people interaction cannot be overlooked.
- drop in productivity, more stress related illness (MC), no motivation to improve = not productivity gains. afterall the threat of being replaced is ever present. when employerses are calculative, so will employees.
////Comeon, the whole world is being affected badly! Singapore merely suffered a slight dent due to its leaders’ long-range foresight and vision.////
if S’pore merely suffered a slight dent there would be no retraining, SPURS, JCS. simply because the impact would be too small to warrant them.
by the way, re-training programs, job placement programs are a response to the large numbers of job loses. hence, they should be viewed as a such – a response.
when the people who lost their jobs cannot find a new 1 that offers similiar or better remunerations, its very bad. i will like to know your response (in your falling ill analogy) when a doctor says you cannot fully recover from an injury or illness.
This Malaysian article claims that Singapore’s Debt to GDP ratio is 99.2%. I am taken by surprised. Can anyone please confirm if the ratio is true ? See article below :
http://futurefastforward.com/feature-articles/2968
The measuring yardstick by using GDP has already been vigorously debated in Europe and new better theories ae emerging to replace GDP
Let’s see how PAP does their spins to continue to use GDP to lie about the well-being of our citizens and to justify the PAP salaries.
GDP, in China blogs is termed as Gou3 Fang3 Pi4 , that is 狗放屁， 放狗屁。。。that means, fart ike a dog !
My Views
You are very wrong. Many PMETs were unemployed because of the abundant supply of cheaper S-PASS worker (not FT). Some of my PMET friends were forced to resign so that they are replaced these cheapers worker. If you ever work with these SPASS worker, you will know that they are not skilled at all. They are just simply cheaper. The employer expect those locals who are still with the company to mentor them.
SO your statement on skill is NOT required is just “YOUR VIEWS”.
@90) mice is nice on December 20th, 2009 7.00 pm
Hello mice is nice,
Don’t know why you still want to engage My Views. Obviously, and not just my opinion judging from the various posters herein & in recent articles, many have diffculty understanding the rationale put out by this person. I have stopped engaging whoever that is since it is not worth banging our heads on a wall over an apparent idiot.
I suspect My Views’ views are not his/her own, looking more like someone given some details of arguments and he/she is spinning all sorts of rubbish just to confuse everyone. Really cheap stuff. BTW, this poster seems to pop up only quite recently if you have noticed.
Anywyay these are my opinions….
hi hi, theforgottongeneration
post #94 on December 21st, 2009 3.07 pm
we should sympathise “My View” alittle? must have been indoctrinated to think that way. but rather than letting such views entrench deeper, i would prefer to shed more light on why it is wrong.
whether the words are works of spindoctor/ or personally his or her’s, it does not matter to me. what matters more is that (hopefully) the source where such spin came from can be so well countered they can spin no more. ;)
spindoctors sometimes cite the extreme in hope they get an oppose extreme react to prove they are not wrong (hence to certain degree, they are right). we must not play into their hands.
yes, this moniker seems recent. & the views put out to maximise negative response, stoke negative emotions. such response directly or indirectly justify govt’s draconian measures to be put in place (out of fear to protect itself).
thanks for sharing your opinions.
stay cool & have a pleasant day. ;)
@95) mice is nice on December 21st, 2009 3.51 pm
Sure, your time is your time … benevolence is a virtue seldom seen in our First World “city” nowadays.
stay cool & have a pleasant day / festival season too….
I have reasoned out with my parents, brothers and sisters, in-laws, friends and neighbours that we should not vote PAP after what they have done to Singapore citizens. Most of them concur eventually. I think all of us should do the same, do our part…
“Earnings and income down while living expenses go up”
Is this progress?
I am seeing more fresh grads doing low paying temp jobs.
sigh.
I do hope the fresh grads , who are step out of their university every year , have a happy holiday nevertheless.
WE MUST TEACH P**A***P A LESSON NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!
@97) Squeezed on December 22nd, 2009 12.43 pm
“…I have reasoned out with my parents, brothers and sisters, in-laws, friends and neighbours that we should not vote PAP after what they have done to Singapore citizens. Most of them concur eventually. I think all of us should do the same, do our part… ”
Many nowadays may have a different view. Most are demanding for change. Go read about Winston Churchill — the man who pull Britain through the darkest moments in WW2, then only to be kicked out together with his political party almost immediately after the war.
“Many nowadays may have a different view. Most are demanding for change. Go read about Winston Churchill — the man who pull Britain through the darkest moments in WW2, then only to be kicked out together with his political party almost immediately after the war. ”
But was voted back in at a later time.. Your point?
The govt has ran out of ideas how to improve the country obviously seen in the last 5 years. They want to bump the population to 6 million for reasons still unknown to me. Why do we need 6 million? While I agree we need to new ppl since we are not producing enough babies, why not just take the minimum number? why do we need to grow the population at all? Isn 4 million more than enough.. its already damn crowded.
Because for a FIRST WORLD nation our productivity is crap. We need two people to produce the same output that a person in a developed country does. That’s why we need 6 million people.