SINGAPORE: Unemployment is expected to creep up further this year, as Singapore’s workforce ages and older workers who lose their jobs take longer to find new ones, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday (May 1).
Even with a “good chance” of better economic growth this year, the Government expects a “steady trickle” of redundancies. As companies restructure, some workers will be displaced, Mr Lee told unionists gathered at Our Tampines Hub for the annual May Day Rally.
Singapore’s economy expanded by 2 per cent last year, up slightly from 2015’s 1.9 per cent, which was the country’s weakest annual growth rate since 2009. The unemployment rate climbed to 2.3 per cent in the first quarter of this year.
Still, Singapore’s unemployment rate is low in comparison to other developed countries, where they are typically much higher – at least 5 per cent, and sometimes, 10 per cent, Mr Lee said.
“We have to understand this trend, but at the same time we have to work hard to resist it, and to keep our workers in jobs,” he said.
He gave an example of PSA, which retained its workers when the port shifted to Pasir Panjang and used better technology. The workers were retrained, and quite a few took on new roles, he said.
The Keppel FELS yard. (Photo: Keppel)
CREATING NEW JOBS
In order to create new jobs, the Government will bring in new businesses and investments, and upgrade existing companies, a “winning formula for 50 years”, Mr Lee said.
“If we don’t have the new companies, if we don’t have a business-friendly environment where people want to come, there will be no new jobs,” he said, adding that the Economic Development Board has been working hard to get MNCs to invest in Singapore.
He gave examples of projects last year – electronics company Micron invested S$5.4 billion, expanded its facility at North Coast Drive and created 500 jobs; Search engine giant Google employed 1,000 people at its new campus in Mapletree Business City; chemical company Evonik broke ground for their second plant on Jurong Island, investing S$800 million and creating 150 jobs.
Google’s office in Singapore at Mapletree Business City II. (Photo: MCI)
At the same time, the Government is helping local small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), both traditional and high-tech, to upgrade themselves, go overseas, expand and build new capabilities, Mr Lee said.
He highlighted Grandluxe, a Singaporean company set up 75 years ago as a book-binding workshop along Mohamad Sultan Road. It expanded into the printing business, setting up a factory in Jurong, printing stationery and notebooks.
But with the old business shrinking, the company decided to change their business model. They turned bookbinding into a premium craft, and started a new company called Bynd Artisan, where customers get to go to their retail shop, and pick materials. Now, at Bynd Artisan, which is selling to the world, skilled bookbinders will personalise leather books and goods.
One of these skilled bookbinders is Ms Tan Buay Heng, who started 40 years ago as a production operator, manually binding books. Ms Tan’s story, from production operator to retail branch manager, can become the story of other workers, Mr Lee said.
Bynd Artisan employee Tan Buay Heng rose from a production operator to retail branch manager. (Photo: MCI)
“What Bynd Artisan did, Spring and IE Singapore are helping many other SMEs to do. Not every SME can become a retail boutique book binder, but many can reinvent themselves and find new niches in which they can grow,” he added.
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