Chee under fire for ‘misrepresenting’ data

SINGAPORE — Responding to comments relating to the local employment growth last year by Dr Chee Soon Juan at his rally on Thursday (May 5) night, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said it is “disappointed” that Dr Chee “continues to deliberately misrepresent our employment data”. It noted that during the rally, Dr Chee had said: “MOM took issue with me, saying that the number of jobs created for locals was not 100 as I pointed out. Instead it is 700.”

Dr Chee had mentioned the figure of 100 jobs during his rally on Tuesday, leading the ministry on Wednesday to correct his interpretation of the employment data.

Reiterating its explanation as to why Dr Chee had misunderstood the figures, the MOM said last night: “We would like to make it clear that the issue was never about the local employment growth of 100 (which is the advance estimate) versus 700 (which is the final number).

“It is about Dr Chee’s misunderstanding of what that number represents, which is the ‘net’ number of new jobs taken by locals and not the total number of new jobs for locals. There is a significant difference between the two, due to the number of locals exiting jobs annually for reasons such as retirement.”

It added: “We are disappointed that having earlier misunderstood and subsequently read our clarification, Dr Chee continues to deliberately misrepresent our employment data.”