SINGAPORE: Returning to the job market was a difficult but necessary step for 50-year-old Rachelle Goh. The former accountant was retrenched at the end of last month.
“Finding a job has not been easy. I’ll be very worried if I am unable to get a job after a more than a month,” she said.
She was one of more than 750 people who attended the Inclusive Job Fair held at Our Tampines Hub and organised by the National Trades Union Congress, the Employment and Employability Institute and the North East Community Development Council.
Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC, Desmond Choo said the turnout reflects the mood on the ground and that many of his residents are taking a longer time to get a job. The Labour MP said many of them are professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) in the late 40s and early 50s.
“It is more difficult for them to find a job due to the slowing economy and because the jobs are changing now,” he said.
MODIFY JOBS TO ATTRACT OLDER WORKERS
Representatives from 19 companies attended the fair, including SMRT, SBS Transit, Singapore Post, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, NTUC Health as well as others from the hospitality industry. Many of them, Mr Choo said, had modified job functions to cater to mature workers.
“This job fair is different from others,” he said. “The jobs offered here are those that middle-aged and senior workers will be able to adapt to and master within a shorter period of training. The employers here are also progressive and inclusive- they are willing to hire workers across all ages,” Mr Choo said.
NTUC Health’s assistant manager for recruitment, Joanna Pee said some of the more mature applicants were concerned whether they could perform at the job and whether their educational qualifications were up to the mark. While some of the six positions on offer in NTUC Health required higher certifications, Ms Pee assured applicants that a basic level of English and familiarity with dialects would suffice for other jobs such as that for operations assistants.
“We have a centre manager who is 70-years-old who works part-time for us,” she said. “By providing flexibility, more people can come on board, even those who are physically challenged. We have a colleague who uses a wheelchair to get around.”
SMRT was one of the more popular choice among job seekers at the Inclusive Job Fair in Tampines on Tuesday (Apr 4). (Photo: Monica Kotwani)
At SMRT’s booth, a crowd of people gathered, waiting to be interviewed. Luke Lim, who is with SMRT’s Human Resources department said about 60 per cent of job seekers who had been interviewed were mature workers. “We have a variety of jobs and the key thing about all these job is basically you don’t need to have any background for example, as a bus captain, we will provide the whole suite of training in order for them to progress. And we view it as a career, not as a job,” he said.
YOUNGER JOB SEEKERS TAKING A LONGER TIME TO FIND WORK
While the job fair was targeted at mature workers, many of those who turned up were younger. Ms Nurul Nadzirah Yussof, 24, said she has unsuccessfully applied for numerous jobs since she graduated in September 2016. The psychology major said she would ideally like a job in a related field, such as social work and counselling. “But I’m not picky. I’ll take whatever comes because the economy is quite bad now,” she said.
Ms Nurul said she applied to SBS Transit for an assistant manager position. “The response was encouraging but I won’t keep my hopes up just yet. I’ll just keep applying to more jobs,” she said.
Another hopeful, 31-year-old Kalai Selvi found out about the job fair through an app. She said she has been unemployed for almost two years and has been getting by working as a cleaner and dishwasher. She was previously a patient service associate at a hospital.
“Finding a job is difficult nowadays. Not like (it was) last time. It has taken me more than a year – almost two years. Last time, just after I graduated, I got a job in two months,” Ms Selvi said.
Employment statistics released by the Manpower Ministry last month revealed that the job market in 2016 was one of the bleakest in recent years, illustrated by rising unemployment, layoffs and people taking longer to find jobs.
MP Desmond Choo urged companies to work faster in offering flexi-work arrangements to attract more women back to the workforce. (Photo: Elizabeth Neo)
OFFERING FLEXIBLE ARRANGEMENTS FOR WOMEN
Mr Choo said despite the slowing economy, there are still jobs out there and for companies to reach out to job seekers, it is also about changing their mindsets and processes. One area that could see improvement is in companies offering flexible work arrangements, especially to attract women with children back into the workforce, he said.
Mr Choo said among the job seekers in the market are well-trained professionals such as accountants, engineers and technicians. “We did a recent survey. Of the PMET women, more than 90 per cent want to come back but don’t for two reasons. They are uncertain about the workplace and the workplace is still quite inflexible,” he said.
He added that NTUC has started work on a Returnship Programme that would help women returning to the workforce overcome the first concern – that of being unsure about their skills having been away from work for a long time. The programme was mooted ahead of this year’s Budget, with the proposal that the Government covers the cost of wages for hiring back to work mothers for a period of two to four months while they undergo training.
But Mr Choo said companies also have to do their part, offering more flexible work arrangements. “We are not evolving at the pace we need to be to bring back more women into the workforce. They can be an important pillar of the workforce and we just need the employers’ side to catch up,” he said.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Neo
