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Is Singapore prepared to have 2,500 babies born here every year grow up to be construction workers?
Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing gave this stark number – which works out to around 8 per cent of the 33,000 babies born every year – to show what has to happen if Singapore were to cut down on foreign workers.
Elaborating on this hypothetical scenario during a virtual press conference on Saturday (May 30), he sketched a scene in which Singapore has 300,000 foreign construction workers, and where each Singaporean is thrice as productive as a foreign worker.
In theory, this would mean the 300,000 foreign workers could be replaced with 100,000 Singaporeans, who could each be paid thrice as much as a foreign worker.
Assuming every worker works for 40 years without dropping out, this would mean that every year, 2,500 babies would have to be designated as construction workers.
“Do you think you’ll be recruiting, at every cohort of Singaporean babies, about 6 to 8 per cent of them into the construction industry?” asked Mr Chan.
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