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Good jobs and income ‘cannot be taken for granted’

SINGAPORE — Although the economy is still creating jobs, Singaporeans’ anxiety about job security is understandable as it could affect their families, said Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, noting that good jobs and income in future cannot be taken for granted.

Office workers at Raffles Place. TODAY file photo

Office workers at Raffles Place. TODAY file photo

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SINGAPORE — Although the economy is still creating jobs, Singaporeans’ anxiety about job security is understandable as it could affect their families, said Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, noting that good jobs and income in future cannot be taken for granted.

Addressing the House on Wednesday (April 6) as he wrapped three days of debate over the Budget, Mr Heng said to address these concerns, the Government will need to create the right kind of jobs going forward, as well as develop the right skills and enable the right match between jobseekers and opportunities.

Creating the right jobs would be “no mean feat”. “We not only need to create jobs but given our high cost structure, to create jobs of high value and meet the aspirations of Singaporeans,” said Mr Heng.

Mr Heng urged firms to be more productive, noting that higher productivity will lead to higher wages. And even as the Government implements the S$4.5 billion Industry Transformation Programme, business owners must do their part to redesign jobs and develop staff, he said.

“(By) investing in their people…firms can start a virtuous cycle of higher skills, higher productivity and higher profits, which can then be reinvested further to develop the firm and their people,” he said.

Turning to focus on individuals and their role in taking advantage of skills upgrading initiatives, the Finance Minister pointed to the Government’s SkillsFuture movement to encourage lifelong learning. Last year, 260,000 Singaporeans took up skills upgrading courses under the WSQ framework. From the academic year 2014 till last year, 22,000 people were enrolled in part-time courses and Mr Heng applauded their effort to juggle work, family and studies.

Under SkillsFuture, an individualised learning portal will be developed for individuals, beginning from as young as Primary Five students, to help in planning learning and career development paths. These efforts in totality will equip Singaporeans with skills for the workplace and the capacity to learn throughout life, said Mr Heng.

Meanwhile, more can be done to match people to the right jobs as new industries and new types of jobs emerge. For a start, the ICT sector will partner with government partners to offer training, certificate and job matching services, through the TechSkills Accelerator for the sector.

During the debate, MPs had proposed ways to improve the labour market, among them Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines GRC) who suggested broadening the apprenticeship system, and Mr Patrick Tay (West Coast GRC) who suggested a support network for unemployed white-collar workers.

Responding to these proposals, Mr Heng urged caution. “We must be careful about how we intervene in the labour market. We cannot simply copy one bit from one country and another piece from another, and hope to make sense of it,” he said. “There has to be a clear philosophy and the various measures must cohere to be effective in the long term.”

He added: “We must not undermine the sense of independence and efficacy, and the spirit of self-reliance and resilience of our people.”

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