Tag Archives: workforce

With the PAP in power, why do FTs have to worry about finding jobs here? Who should be more worried - foreigners or Singaporeans?

With 2 million eligible for Skillsfuture credit, how come the number of people who went for subsidised training only increase by 39,000? Isn't this a relatively low take-up rate?

Since “Total employment grew by 9,700 in the second quarter of 2015, after contracting in the preceding quarter (-6,100)” – does it mean that the net increase in total employment was 3,600 in 1H 2015? So, why is local employment change decreasing by 8,000 against an overall increase in foreign employment of 12,500 (- 8,900 locals + 3,600 total employment increase)?

I know of a PR who got retrenched recently. He is a PMET. So now it seems that the influx of cheap and maybe-good foreigners are not only displacing Singaporeans out of their jobs, but maybe also Singapore PRs, new citizens and foreign PMETs who have been working in Singapore for quite some time.

Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say said on Tuesday that he has been able to get their agreement to work towards four priority outcomes. These are: becoming more manpower lean, building a strong Singaporean core, ensuring the foreign workforce is of good quality and maintaining Singapore’s competitiveness.” We have been hearing these same rhetoric for years.

Three in ten, or almost one-third, of employees in Singapore are considering turning in their resignation letters this year to search for a new opportunity, according to a new survey. Inadequate career growth prospects, low salary and lack of recognition were the key reasons cited by employees planning to leave their current jobs, the 2015 Randstad Award employer branding survey showed.

The attitude of local workforce worries me. The young people in Singapore worries me. They lack of courage, hunger and fire in them. It seems that they have been living in a cotton candy world called Singapore. Is this the future of our country? Can you blame company and entrepreneurs like us seeking foreign talents? I'm concerned about our country competitiveness if this is the quality of our young generation.

Mrs Cindy Keng, Director of Corporate Communications Division, MTI and Ms Chong Wan Yieng, Director of Corporate Communications Department, MOM, wrote a joint letter to ST today (16 Aug), debunking an ST article from Dr Tan Kong Yam (“Growth in a decade of shocks”, 12 Aug). The 2 spokeswomen said, “We have embarked on major restructuring of our economy in recent years. This has included the tightening of foreign worker policies, promoting productivity and ensuring a sustainable social balance.” However, they denied that the inflow of foreign workers had suppressed local wages before 2008.

Only two out of ten workers in Singapore feel that they are committed to their jobs, while over half the workers don’t think they’re valued by their bosses, a survey has found. The survey by Kelly Services polled from close to 230,000 people in 31 countries, including more than 1,500 individuals here. Out of these individuals, only 20 per cent said they were totally committed to their job — a progressive decline since 2010’s 38 per cent — while only 40 per cent of employees here felt valued by their employers. Both numbers are lower compared to countries in the region including Indonesia, Malaysia and China.

The predilection among many foreign and some local banks for foreign PMETs is personified in this statement by the former CEO of Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, Mr Ray Ferguson: "If you look at it from our point of view itself, we would not have been able to grow to be where we are if we had said that we got to have a Singaporean-only focus (in hiring) for the last 20 years." So as a reflection of that, it is not surprising that out of the three local banks here, two have foreigner CEOs. And Standard Chartered Bank which recently locally incorporated its Consumer Banking arm has again hired a foreign Indian national to replace Ray Ferguson who has gone on to join Arab Bank in Bahrain.