On 15 July, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singapore needed 100,000 foreign workers in the coming year. He said this was “was unavoidable as the labour market was bursting at the seams.” (See here.)
The Prime Minister’s remarks have apparently generated interest in the Philippines.
Below is a news report, apparently on the same day that PM Lee made his remarks, from the Philippines about the “100,000 jobs” openings in Singapore.
Transcripts are provided here as the news report is in Tagalog.
Anchor:
There are 100 000 jobs that are opening right now in Singapore that Filipinos can get. But according to a certain job agency, there are also many opportunities opening up here for those who do not want to leave the country. Reporting is Timi Nubla.
Timi Nubla:
According to newswire agency, Agence France-Presse, or AFP, 100 000 jobs are going to open up for foreigners. In a telephone interview, one local headhunter firm confirmed that there are indeed many new opportunities in the Lion City, particularly in the finance sector which needs accountants and research analysts. Programmers and software developers are needed in the information technology sector.
And also for the hospitality industry, which includes hotels and casinos (card dealers, game operators, entertainers)—the recently-opened Universal Studios needs foreign workers: singers, stuntmen, dancers and mascots are amongst the jobs needed to be filled in Singapore. According to the news source, ABS-CBN, a mascot can earn up to 150 000 pesos a month in Singapore.
But it is not only in Singapore where new opportunities are opening. Here in the country, more and more new job openings are appearing. “There are many companies and employers hiring now, and we think this is because of the [increased] level of optimism people have and also, now, trust in the government,” [says Lloyd Sy, Sales Mgr. at JOBS DB].
In demand in the country are accountants and IT [workers/specialists]. For seekers, there is no shortage of jobs in the country’s ever-growing call-centre industry. JOBS DB’s advice for seekers, especially fresh graduates, employers often look for people with fine communication skills, proficiency in computer use, and above all, a positive attitude. [Says Cora Llamas, JOBS DB’s Corp. Communication Consultant,] “You may be good at your job, but if you are difficult to get along with, do not bother [applying].” Fast learners, and those who have work experience unrelated to one’s educational degree or training are also marketable traits.
Reporting for Bandila, Timi Nubla.
—————-
Captions in the news report:
JOB OPENINGS SA SINGAPORE: 100,000
JOB OPENINGS IN SINGAPORE: 100 000
100,000 TRABAHO SA SINGAPORE, PWEDENG APLAYAN NG MGA PILIPINO
[THERE ARE] 100,000 JOBS IN SINGAPORE FILIPINOS MAY APPLY TO
JOB OPPORUTUNITIES SA PILIPINAS, DUMARAMI NA RIN—JOBSDB.COM
JOB OPPORTUNITIES IN THE PHILIPPINES, ALSO INCREASING—JOBSDB.COM
MGA TRABAHONG IN DEMAND SA SINGAPORE:
JOBS IN DEMAND IN SINGAPORE:
FINANCE: ACCOUNTANTS, RESEARCH ANALYSTS
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: PROGRAMMERS, SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY: CARD DEALERS, GAME OPERATORS, ENTERTAINERS
HOPSITALITY INDUSTRY: SINGERS, STUNTMEN, DANCERS, MASCOTS
SWELDO NG MASCOT SA SINGAPORE: P 150,000 KADA BUWAN
SALARY OF A MASCOT IN SINGAPORE: P 150 000 PER MONTH
JOB OPENINGS SA BANSA: ACCOUNTANT, I.T., CALL CENTER AGENTS
JOB OPENINGS IN THE PHILIPPINES: ACCOUNTANTS, I.T. [SPECIALISTS], CALL CENTRE AGENTS
KADALASANG HINAHANAP NG MGA EMPLOYERS: COMMUNICATION SKILLS, COMPUTER SKILLS, MABUTING UGALI
WHAT EMPLOYERS USUALLY LOOK FOR: COMMUNICATION SKILLS, COMPUTER SKILLS, POSITIVE ATTITUDE
HELP keep the voice of TOC alive!
If you like this article, please consider a small donation to help theonlinecitizen.com stay alive. Please note that we can only accept donations from Singaporeans. Thank you for your assistance.Do you have a flair for writing? Volunteer with us. Email us your full name and contact details to theonlinecitizen@gmail.com
S’poreans study so hard, pay so much for education dunno for what. got world class education still have to compete with people with not so world class certs for similiar salaries?
so much for “raise our game”, when all employers want is cheap labour. just look at the frontline staff in (retail, F&B & hospitality) industries that was once dominated by people who can’t understand basic english. it’s prove that meritocracy is hogwash.
I hope they aren’t thinking that all of the 100,000 jobs are just for Filipinos…
“According to the news source, ABS-CBN, a mascot can earn up to 150 000 pesos a month in Singapore.”
150 000 pesos = 4437 SGD (at a rate of 1 SGD to 33.81 pesos
Wouldn’t Singaporeans want the job?
sgcynic,
Thanks for the salary figure. It is not a surprise to us.
People who are familiar with the labour market will tell you that it is not exactly about employers wanting to hire cheap labour or cheap professionals. It is about talents, positive attitude, creativity, willingness to accept changes, ability to focus, etc. A common complaint we heard is Singaporean employees (even the professionals and managers) like to stop work on the dot; foreign employees on the other hand do not mind working past mid-night without overtime pay. If you go shopping frequently, you will notice the service difference between a Singaporean and Philippine sales assistant – being served by the latter was always a happy experience.
Sighs, look at what the PM has done to Singapore! Creating a climate of false hope for the foreigners and inevitably, social problems for the citizens.
I am planning to leave Singapore; no eyes to see.
PLEASE, enough of pinoys here.
I keep hearing TAGALOG at every corner I turn. It gets worse at shopping centres and mrt which are inundated with these pinoys !!!
Housing price for hdb or pte would just shoot up
Housing would not be affordable any more
More demand less supply
Actually, I have no problems with PRs + foreigners, so long as there is segregation.
In other words official statistics must prove, under peer review from the opposition, that Singaporean citizens benefit.
Currently no such study exists, or is unable to be undertaken because of government secrecy or obfuscation.
Had dinner recently at a newish 5-star hotel eatery.
I remarked to my foreign host that the jnr waiting staff were all Filipino, and the senior ones Italian (it was an Italian place). He later asked the receptionist if the other jnr staff were Pinoys.She confirmed they were.
Saw one S’porean — one of the kitchen staff. But he could be M’sia ((((
But the clientale sounded S’poreans, so it must be OK. If they were largely foreigners, we would be in trouble.
Expect Singaporean wage to be depressed further. I have never expected such greatest insult to our nation after voting for PAP
Where will i send my application form? Position desired: Entertainer,Dancer, or Mascots.
Wow, there will be another 100,000 pinoys, PRCs and Indians flooding our shores soon.
Singapore is getting more and more crowded.
Stop!! I say, I need my space. Is the PAP a government of the citizens of Sinkapore, or are they in the business to provide jobs for the 3rd world?
When will the PAP put a stop to all this?
We have to remember to vote wisely at the next G.E. to give the PAP a “strong signal” of our discontent.
Native citizens have long learnt to Adapt to policies. That is why regardless of the policy changes or things that happened in the last 30 years, the citizens generally majoritily accept the situations by adapting to them.
But i dunno how other citizens would react if these happen overseas and i mean any other country in the world.
Kudos to citizens. You are the role model for all other country citizens and ideal citizenry for all politicians in the world.
Why? because your cooperative and adaptive spirit is what helps them to be able to realise their objectives to make the country grow in GDP.
Again, 4 million kudos to you all.
tomolo i going to australia liao. ciao! cheese! bye bye!
PM Lee,
I find it hard to believe that IT roles and accountants are jobs S’poreans “shun”!!!
Also, please tell us where these 100,000 additional people are going to live, eat and shop. Shall we build a large foreign workers dorm next to your luxurious bungalow???
What about public transport? Will this soon reach the “crush load” that the CEO of SMRT wanted??
I suggest TOC start using your said ‘Dear Minister’ feature to engage our ministers. Excuses like “This and that can’t be helped…”, “freak event”, “Singaporeans don’t want to do certain jobs”, etc. are so lame.
Notice sometimes they don’t even say anything – the typical act blur tactic. Is this political maturity? Something to be expected in a First World country (Oh, sorry forgot our MSM is ranked, what, 154th??)
We should start tracking what the ministers are saying to what is on the ground situation. Having some pseudonyms, like ‘My Views’, to engage the online community is really just very poor containment action since their arguments upon scrutiny is really BULLSHIT! (I admit some of the arguments call for some rethinking, but they don’t hold water if the issue doesn’t improve). I say, yes, nothing can be perfect, but stop justifying FAILURES. Especially if the leaders are being paid probably the highest salaries in the world.
To start, try getting LHL to explain the real reasons for the foreigner influx. Root questions are:
1. Was the Stop-at-2 policy carried out too long thereby causing the imbalance in our population now? Who is responsible?
2. The ‘easy’ way is large import of foreigners in the short-term? What
is the ‘hard’ way taken by the govt. for the long term (i.e. addressing the TFR directly)? At what level will the import stops — we’re already at 36%. At 40%? 50%? 99%???
3. Why Singaporeans are “choosy” of certain jobs? Is the pay too low compared with std of living? Because of a generation brought up by maids? Like China’s ‘little emperors’? There was a miscaluation in the nos. of sustainable high end jobs for S’poreans? etc….
4. Who build up this mentality of choosiness? Both parents working + using maid to bring up kids? Isn’t getting more women to work because it is the “easy” way to boost GDP? What impact did that have on the family nucleus? PRs setting a precedence in job-hopping due to their perceived higher mobility (i.e. lack of loyalty)? Etc….
5. Why up till now we haven’t redesign the jobs that people generally don’t like to do? TH has now value of 186b – were money for redesigning of infrastructural works channelled instead into investments over past 10+ years? Give road sweepers a zamboni-type machine and $2k starting salary, you think no singaporeans interested? Same with Construction. Do you know a professional brick-layer is highly regarded in other countries? WHY???
6. Why can’t Singapore labor market be on a true demand & supply for true Singaporeans? Many citizens in Japan, Korea, England, Australia, Canada, USA,…. are construction workers. They don’t choose the easy way of importing cheap foreigners nor zipping laborers around at the back of pick-ups. WHY?
7. What part does management has to play to ‘sell’ unpopular jobs to Singaporeans? Stop exploitation? Show us they also can scoop shit from the ground? Or barricade themselves in ivory towers and getting big bucks?
8. Can we have a real debate on setting min. wages for local standards & different jobs? Why the garhem so reluctant to have an open discussion on this?
9. Other countries have real representation of the blue-collar workers. They don’t have frogs screaming Cheaper, Faster, Better.
etc… etc… etc…
So there are MANY, MANY issues to the employment situation in Singapore. Just blaming it on “Singaporeans are choosy” or silly excuses like “overheating” is like paying peanuts to a monkey to work
out the solutions — you get peanut-solutions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/business/19training.html?_r=1&hp
sounds familiar ???
My Views 19 July 2010 sgcynic,
Thanks for the salary figure. It is not a surprise to us.
People who are familiar with the labour market will tell you that it is not exactly about employers wanting to hire cheap labour or cheap professionals. It is about talents, positive attitude, creativity, willingness to accept changes, ability to focus, etc.
…………………..
indeed i 101% agreed with you on this 1..
how come our overpaid ministers cannot be replaced? they don’t come in cxheap you know..worst of all..every 1 of them is incompetenmt ninkamput useless eatricewasteseed BUMs…
you want an example of their incompetencies?
My Views 19 July 2010
Wait a minute! Lets get the fundamental point right. A law is a law, however silly it is, it must be complied.
………….
ok this 1 i still agreed with you 101%
a law is a law..we wouldn’t want gohmenseng to charge into berlinda ang court chamber while a session is on right? that is contempt of court…
liked as you said..it must be complied!!!
how come when lauLEEE charged in with 7 armed guards..berlindang being a senoir court judge took no actions?
Does everyone ask why the annoucement was done by LHL himself this time? Which audience was it targetted for? Singaporeans asking for jobs, or employers clamouring for cheap labour? Or appeasement to coys after imposing heavier levy? What happened to the Productivity drive — died at birth?
See how different ministers must ‘take turn’ to explain each cock-up, e.g. flooding, even though they are from different ministries. Cos’ the last few already no face/credibility (WKS very, very quiet, leh. Only George Yeo says he is ready for elections). But you know the drill; they just take cover for a while & everyone will forget all the stupid excuses & inactions of past.
To : Steffi,
Are u going to leave singapore? Pls contact me so we can go together. Singaporeans be with singaporeans. Give me your email address here, and i contact u if u want to.
Sigh…. I want to leave this country too. Really no eyes to see liao. Like that keep on going , our garhment is slaughtering us like pigs.
Like the “Stop At 2″ policy in the 1980s was susbsequently proven to be a HUGE mistake, the current open-floodgates-to-any-foreigners policy will be viewed as an even bigger mistake in the future
@Steffi/yaya
I’m planning on migration too! Maybe we could start a support group for helping locals leave Singapore. Let me know if you guys are remotely interested in the idea.
you all har!!! anyhow migrate..
than who am i goin to grumble or bang tables whenever i visit the frontdesks?
have anybody tried to grumble in targolor? or showin my temple with a bangala tradesmen instead of sworin in bahasa malaysia/cantonese?
We can be rest assured by the PAP govt that out of the 100,000 foreigners, 80,000 will be of Chinese origin. This is in keeping with the racist policy of Lee Kuan Yew to “maintain racial balance” in Singapore.
Why must “racial balance” be given utmost consideration in our multi-racial, multi-cultural, meritocratic Singapore?
@Anonymous Coward; Cult of the common sense
Good idea! Support group for singaporeans who wants to migrate. Never thought of that also. Hehehe…
Ok very good. Can you get my personal email from TOC, then you email me and we can talk from there, ok? Let TOC know that you have my permission to have my email address.
Thanks for bringing it up.
i dun think there is ANY WAY to stop this, AS USUAL x last 30 years.
TOC,
Lee Kuan Yew is on record saying that Singapore’s immigration policy is based on “maintaining racial balance”.
As a third generation Singaporean, I’ve strong objection to this racist remark by LKY who had brought Singapore out from Malaysia as an independent nation in 1965 blaming “domination of one particular race over the rest”.
Going by LKY’s racist bigotry, don’t you think that the inflow of foreigners into Singapore would be to make sure that the “racial balance” is maintained?
Why then are you placing my earlier comment under “moderation” for stating the obvious position of the PAP govt in letting in another 100,000 foreigners into Singapore?
seriously, what can opposition do about this and the many thingies that happened?
who will save us?
regards
sitting duck
Canada needs 250,000 immigrants this yrs.Please quick,quick apply.
@TOC
Is there anyway for the mods of the board to help me get in touch with yaya?
According to the news source, ABS-CBN, a mascot can earn up to 150 000 pesos a month in Singapore?!!?!?!?!?
Thats $4,438.37SGD!!! I’m a freaking holder of a local science masters degree and even I don’t earn anywhere near that after more than 8yrs in the industry and making it to manager!!!
And here they’re telling me that some random guy in a monkey suit, regardless of education and experience, can fetch $4438 a month handing out balloons and acting like an ape?!
I’m having problem getting married, buying a flat and starting a family and NO ONE understands and just thinks I’m not working hard enough, thats why I’m underpaid! Maybe I should just invest in a clown suit too!!! Wait, I can’t, cause I’m local, they wouldn’t hire me for the clown!! Arghhhhhhhh~~~~~!!!!!!!!!
@ My Views:
We have passed the stage where workers are semi-slaves who work long hours and accept lower pay. All workers in developed societies want fair terms, work-life-balance and quality of life. They are humans too, just like the ministers and employers who demand the best for themselves.
walamak
sg unemploy rate quite high;
why still grab non-sg ppl to work here?
cant sg ppl be employ instead?
what’s so special about these 100000 positions?
cant sg ppl be trained?
omg
walamak
@Enuf_of_TAGALOG
I think we can discuss immigration issues without resorting to naked xenophobia.
Hey I like the ideas of helping Singaporean to migrate!! :) maybe you guys can setup a facebook group and share here? I will be the 1st to join!! :)
pm lhl has no idea what he is doing.
he simply does things out of fancy,it seems?
how could he say that there is overheating when countless singaporeans are still jobless.
does he understand economics at all or even simple arithmetic though we know he’s got double first in maths from cambridge.
LHL seems to be more of a clueless PM than a scholar.
100,000? That number is enough to drown local new university graduates and job-seekers. This is ridiculous, and our government still let it happen? Is this a joke?
Last count, SG has about 4.9 million population of which 1.78m are foreigners/foreign-born, hence 36% of the population. In one year, if 100,000 additional foreigners, then that is about 2% increase of population. So, there will be 38% of foreigners here.
Think, is such influx reasonable? Which other country adds 2% of foreigners to its population each year??? E.g. USA has been constant about 12-13% for past decade!
Foreign talent or lies? Look at the official statistics.
http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/visualiser/education/education.html
Less than 10% of the foreign resident has tertiary education and over 40% below secondary education. It never ceases to amaze me how easily Sinkies are conned to impossible degree of gullibility comprehension.
S-Pass holders are going for salaries between S$800 to S$1500. Oh they are in the know, the government and keeping two eyes closed. So it is true that this depresses our wages.
all of the 100,000 jobs are just for Filipinos
FILIPINOS EVERY WHERE AT THE MRT,INFRONT OF YOU N BEHIND YOU ,AT THE HOSPITAL,AT THE TAXI STAND,AT THE PLAYGROUND ,AT THE MARKET,AT THE CINEMA,IN THE PUBS…..AND ALSO IN MY BED.
PHILLIPNOS,PARASITES,POLITICIAN(FAMILY)
PROSITUTES,PARIYAHS,
REMEMBER THE 5 ‘P’
count me in for the migrate please. will there be a big problem for diploma?
I C OTHER AVENUE SINGAPOREAN CAN TAP
SELL UR HOUSE AND TAKE THE PROCEEDS AND MIGRATE TO OTHER COUNTRY AND LIVE LIKE A KING FOR EVER
try this for a size…
if anybody been to lucky plaza on a sunday..you will hear tagalor accent here and there..now imagined when you are surroun all over singapoor 24/7 with tagalor accent again..you would hav thought i also bein to cebu liked this contributor
this is it.
this is the final curtain call for singaporeans.
see you all in hell.
you singaporeans are really dumb as dumb as unmentionable.
that’s why in other country if there is a issue like this the citizen will bang the table hard enough to make the government piss in the pants. but here the more you bang the more you piss in your own pants. good luck
thanks to the government now i can get PR already and work here in sg. no more ica stopping us. cool idea. may pinoy succeed! all the best…selamat….
our lky is a real father a g@d.
he make the world a better place for everyone. he give everyone in the world a jobs and place to live as their government not capable enough like our father to take care of their citizen. soon our father will run the whole world government and be the first class leader and pay cheque increase to 100 billion a month.
our lky is a real father a g@d.
he make the world a better place for everyone. he give everyone in the world a jobs and place to live as their government not capable enough like our father to take care of their citizen. soon our father will run the whole world government and be the first class leader and pay cheque increase to?? guess
Singaporeans should bear in mind that these foreign talents and foreign employees are here to enlarge the cake so that everyone is better off. The country also becomes a stronger competitor internationally. Any other country who wishes to compete with Singapore now has to take into account of Singapore’s highly skilled and diversed pool of talents.
My Views 21 July 2010
Singaporeans should bear in mind that these foreign talents and foreign employees are here to enlarge the cake so that everyone is better off
……………………..
harlor i still angry with you on a 101% as well…so how come our overpaid ministers is not includin those corrupt ex-ministers from nigeria/uganda/northkorea?
why perhaps they don’t eat cakes @ all?