Recovery may not drag down jobless rate for now

Recovery may not drag down jobless rate for now

Manpower minister says rate will remain high for some time as it lags recovery

By FELDA CHAY

(SINGAPORE) Singapore’s unemployment rate is likely to remain high even as the economy is showing signs of recovery, said Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong yesterday.

Mr Gan: Urges employers and workers to remain flexible, to go on training
‘I think the overall employment sentiments have improved . . . However, I think the unemployment rate will remain high for some time. This is because typically, employment will lag behind economic recovery,’ said Mr Gan.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for each of the first three quarters of this year hovered between 3.3 per cent and 3.4 per cent. Among the resident labour force, this rate ranged from 4.6 per cent to 5 per cent - which it hit in the third quarter.

‘So I would urge employers and workers to remain flexible . . . to go on training, to be adaptable, to be prepared to accept jobs that are different from what they are used to, especially for those that have been unemployed and those who have been retrenched,’ said Mr Gan.

He added that there are many programmes under the government-funded Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur) that can help those who were given the axe to make a career switch. Launched last December for a two-year run, Spur pays a part of workers’ wages as they undergo training, while also subsidising their training fees.

Mr Gan was speaking to reporters while on a visit to two retail outlets under Wing Tai Retail, a beneficiary of the Spur programme. As of end November this year, 42,000 job seekers have found employment through the programme by going to the Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) career centres at the Community Development Councils (CDCs), NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) and the Continuing Education and Training Centres (CETs), said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and WDA yesterday.

The bulk of these workers were rank-and-file workers with secondary or lower education, with six in ten aged 40 years and above. Responses from these workers on Spur have been positive thus far, said Mr Gan, with many of them saying that it has been effective in helping them to secure jobs. He hopes that firms will continue to step forward and send their workers for training even as the economy recovers and employers feel the need to ground employees at the workplace in anticipation of increased orders.

According to MOM and WDA figures, 264,000 workers from 4,000 companies have committed to Spur training as of end November, two-thirds of whom have already commenced, or completed their training.

But while the headline figure is impressive, fewer workers are signing up for training each month. Official figures show that only 11,000 had signed up in October for courses under Spur, a number that is about half of the 21,000 in September. In June, 35,000 workers signed up for training. This fell to 30,000 in July and 23,000 in August.

‘It is important for us to take this opportunity to urge companies not to slow down on training because it is important for us to keep our skills relevant, to equip our workers with the necessary ability and capability to be able to tap into the emerging opportunities,’ said Mr Gan.

‘I would encourage companies not to slow down on the training but to continue to tap on Spur to provide training and upgrading for their workers. Spur is a programme that will last for two years, we have another 12 months to go and we want to take this opportunity to help companies reposition themselves better to meet the challenges as we recover from the recession.’

Source : Business Times - 22 December 2009

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