Citizens continue to be screwed in the last 5 years with the inflow of foreigners taking over their jobs. Can you afford another 5 years?

[A Singaporean]

https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/20...mets-amid-more-sporeans-out-of-job-this-year/

 

[A Singaporean]

Citizens should not worry about recession. The last 5 years are already recession like for them.

 

[horny]

If pap is out from election.will this change?

 

[dickheadchang]

 

[mojito]

https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/20...mets-amid-more-sporeans-out-of-job-this-year/

So now then you realize wp needs to go?

 

[parrardee]

For you yes as a loser, but not for the winners.

Citizens should not worry about recession. The last 5 years are already recession like for them.

 

[mojito]

For you yes as a loser, but not for the winners.

Oppies loser, pappies winner.

 

[eatshitndie]

69% will give them another 6.9 years if erection cycle is more than 5 years.

 

[batman1]

Sinkees very happy to be screwed.Maybe now still not screwed enough,still want for more.

 

[birdie69]

https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/20...mets-amid-more-sporeans-out-of-job-this-year/

I believe PAP would remember the 2011 election. With the current recession situation and high local unemployment rate. The wise choice for them s not only stop issue S Pass to foreign talents, they would stop to renew their S Pass and send back as many foreign talents to their own native countries. So that local PMET would not be displaced, young graduates could land a job.
Otherwise, PAP may encounter a very challenging situation in coming election

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Will MOM continue to issue work pass to foreign PMETs amid more S'poreans out of job this year? - The Online Citizen
Unidentified business people cross road in downtown Singapore. (Image by TK Kurikawa / Shutterstock.com)
Unidentified business people cross road in downtown Singapore. (Image by TK Kurikawa / Shutterstock.com)

The recent figures released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) indicated that the number of foreign professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMET) has slowly been creeping up since 2015 (‘Number of foreign PMETs in Singapore hits 400K; largest increase last year since 2015 GE‘).

At the end of last year, the number of foreign PMETs (Employment Pass and S Pass holders) hit almost 400K at 393,700 in Singapore. This was the largest annual increase at 3.3% since the last general election in 2015.


Not only the foreign PMET number is creeping up, the unemployment rate among Singaporeans is also going up. The overall unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) in Singapore was 2.4% in the first three months of this year while that of citizens was 3.5%, the highest in the last 10 years.

Analysts expect unemployment situation in Singapore to get worse

Moving forward, analysts are generally pessimistic about the unemployment situation in Singapore in view of the current COVID-19 outbreak. More firms are expected to shed more headcount in order to cut cost.

According to DBS Group Research, unemployment rate could hit 4.2% by year-end amongst residents. For citizens, the unemployment rate would certainly be higher.

DBS expects total retrenchments to rise to 45,600 this year. It noted that even with the government’s support measures’ totaling $68.8b, a significant number of jobs could still be lost as the economy dips into an unprecedented deep recession.

“Companies may have to shed more headcounts to bring manpower costs to be in line with the fall in earnings. In addition, some companies with weaker financial standings could go belly up,” said Irvin Seah, economist at DBS Group Research. “The Singapore economy could sink into a deep and protracted recession. Many companies may crumble, and more jobs could be lost.”

He also added even if Singapore succeeds in bringing down the number of local cases, it will still be a long way before economic activities resume to normalcy. DBS is projecting Singapore’s headline GDP to fall 7% in the coming two quarters and may remain in negative territory until Q2 2021. It noted that it could contract by 7.8% this year if the COVID-19 situation gets worse.

Would MOM continue to allow foreign PMETs to flood Singapore?

Even as Singaporeans are struggling to find jobs in the current COVID-19 outbreak, many foreigners are keen to get a job in Singapore.

On 27 Mar, a foreign expat posted a message on a popular expat forum asking for advice from fellow expats with regard to his wife’s Employment Pass (EP) application (‘French company allegedly games Jobs Bank amidst COVID-19 outbreak‘).

The poster who claimed to be an EP holder himself, said that he and his wife have been living in Singapore for the past 10 years. His wife was on Dependant’s Pass (DP) till Aug 2018 when she obtained her own EP and started working as a risk and compliance expert in a Pharmaceutical company drawing $10,000 a month.

Then in Jan this year, she got a new offer from a French company, which offered her $13,000 a month. After accepting the new offer, she duly resigned from her existing employer before securing an EP from the Manpower Ministry (MOM) to work for the new company.

“Her new company applied for her EP on February 18, but it was rejected. The reason given was that the salary in the job posting by the new company was lower then the one offered to my wife,” the expat explained. “The new company re-posted the job and kept it open for 14 days till March 12. Thereafter, they applied for my wife’s EP again.”

That it to say, when the French company re-posted the job on Jobs Bank, they have no intention of hiring any locals through the platform since they already have decided to hire the expat’s wife.


In any case, given the current mounting unemployment situation among Singaporeans this year due to the present COVID-19 outbreak, it’s not known if MOM would proceed to issue an EP for the expat’s wife so that she would be able to work for the French company at $13,000 a month.

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[Hypocrite-The]

Number of foreign PMETs has slowly crept up while under/un-employment rate among Singaporeans is also going up - The Online Citizen
Ghui
The government has released the foreign workforce numbers for 2019. The figures indicate that the total foreign workforce in Singapore at the end of last year stands at 1,427,500.

At the end of last year, the number of foreign PMETs (Employment Pass and S Pass holders) hit almost 400K at 393,700. For Employment Pass, the minimum salary to meet for the applicant is $3,600 while for S Pass, the minimum salary to meet is $2,400.

Given that our population is approximately 5.7 million, it would mean that the percentage of foreigners in Singapore stand at roughly 25 %. Considering we are a small country, that is a fairly large percentage.

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with having foreigners in the country, we have to look more closely at how this affects employment figures in Singapore and whether or not our current education system is designed in a way to meet our employment needs. We will also have to examine how our government is proactively managing this situation in the interim.

According to Ministry of Manpower’s figures, the number of foreign professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMET) has slowly crept up while the unemployment rate among Singaporeans is also going up.


Other than unemployment, we also have the situation of underemployment where locals are compelled to take up jobs that pay lesser than what they have been earning in order to make ends meet. Examples of such jobs are security guard, delivery personnel and private-hire drivers.

In 2019, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan was asked to disclose the breakdown of the current number of taxi drivers and private hire car drivers by their respective age groups. Minister Khaw replied that as of February last year, there are about 41,000 Private Hire Car Driver’s Vocational Licence (PDVL) holders and 99,900 Taxi Driver’s Vocational Licence (TDVL) holders.

The age breakdown is as follows:


In other words, some 44% of licensed private hire car drivers fell into the age group of 20-39 years old, the age where workers ought to be pursuing a professional career.

One such individual, Shaun Ow, 39, was working in the private sector for some 11 years in various industries before he was retrenched 4-5 years ago. He then tried to find a job for more than a year before giving up. He ended up driving Grab to make ends meet.

Prof Walter Theseira, an economist at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), noted that the take-home pay for private hire car drivers is “competitive” with the many entry-level jobs for educated younger workers.

But he said that having a large number of young people driving Grab for the long term raises some issues.

“The jobs offer no career path and do not provide workers with significant marketable skills. This means that workers in such jobs will inevitably end up disadvantaged compared to their peers who are able to stay in jobs that offer a career path and the opportunity to build marketable skills,” he added.

“If workers are attracted to private hire driving and other ‘gig’ economy jobs and spend too long in them early on, their lifetime wages and career opportunities could be harmed significantly.”

Looking at the figures and trend, we ought to be asking if foreign PMETs taking up jobs that could be legitimately filled by Singaporeans?

And whether Singaporeans are not as well qualified as their foreign counterparts for these job vacancies, if that is really so, we have to examine if our education and training systems fit in with the available jobs.

What we must avoid is a glut of Singaporeans highly trained for something our country does not need.

To use a simplistic example to illustrate the point – Are we training and educating Singaporeans to do X jobs when what is needed are Y jobs leading to X trained Singaporeans being unable to fulfil those roles which in turn lead to Y jobs going to foreigners?

By reading mainstream media, one could be lulled into a false sense of security (thinking that there are less foreign PMETs than there actually are).

For example, in an article in The New Paper (TNP) in February, the headline read “3 in 4 PMET jobs in growth sectors filled by Singaporeans, PRs“.

This could potentially be a misleading headline because it could lead the casual reader to be satisfied that Singaporeans hold the majority of the jobs when the reality is that 1 in 4 PMET jobs (i.e. 25%) in growth industries are filled by foreigners. In using the former as a headline, TNP may have unwittingly enabled the public to perceive the scenario as favourable to Singaporeans when it is not so.

In the last quarter of 2019, the Finance Ministry (MOF) released a report, reporting on the socio-economic outcomes of Singaporeans born between 1940 and 1979. According to reports, the MOF said that compared to older age groups, Singaporeans in their 40s today are more educated, better able to find jobs, earn more, save more, and live longer and healthier years. If that is the case, why is it that the local PMET unemployment is increasing?

Minister for Education, Ong Ye Kung had said that our education system needed to be aligned with the structure of the economy, so that people would continue to be armed with the required skills to find jobs in the current age of disruption.

Looking at these figures, it is perhaps not quite aligned and the government would really need to address this urgently. They are the ones that come up with the structure of our education system and it would be very unfair to Singaporeans if they are trained to do something that our economy does not need, giving an unfair advantage to foreign PMETs .

In the interim, the government will also have to do more at the national level – including intervening before people are let go and, on a case by case basis, throwing companies a lifeline.

As DBS senior economist Irvin Seah says: “There should be industry consultations and dialogues to identify at-risk companies and workers before retrenchments take place to ensure that they get the necessary support as well as reskilling.”

However, before the government can effectively manage this, it first has to acknowledge that the education system formulated by it is not aligned with the economy which is also steered by it

At the same time, we also have to look at whether are Singaporeans — regardless whether they are trained and experienced — displaced simply because foreign labour come at a lesser cost and that they are easier to exploit due to the difference in rights. It is one thing for a worker to be displaced due to the lack of skills but another if one is simply discarded for his cost.

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[dredd]

This problem looks really different from the perspective of an employer and employee. As an employer myself, I can tell you that the gahment is doing its best to get us to employ locals. Every application for an overseas employee has to get pass stringent tests and enquiries of whether we had tried to get local people to do the job in the first place. Many employers have been penalized if they have shown that they didn't try hard enough to employ locals. So you cannot blame the gahment for doing its part.

The problem lies in local sinkees with their poor work attitude and skills. I have seen some sinkees coming in and asking for employment with the attitude like I owe them something. They ask for the sky but ultimately cannot perform. Of course, not all of them are like that. I am only speaking generally. On the other hand, although I hate to say this, but there are many qualified people from overseas who are humble, have good attitude, don't ask much and can do a good job. So as an employer, which will you choose? Many CMI locals will be beating their chest and howling at local job losses, when what they should be doing is look in the mirror and ask themselves this: "Am I good enough to be employable?"

Let me use the analogy of football. The gahment is like the FA of a country. They want to see the football standards go up, so they allow foreign players in to their domestic league. The clubs are like the companies. They will want to win honours by getting the best players in. They don't care about foreign or local players, as long as they are good players willing to win things for the club. Sinkees are like local players. Some are good and can make it playing in the league, some really cannot make it but keep harping on about inequality and discrimination. Like that how?

 

[LordElrond]

If you look at how disillusioned the majority of the regulars here are... the hope of outvoting PAP is zero.

 

[syed putra]

The whole idea of a Freeport is free movement of people and trade. Cannot take this, go live in Papua.

 

[whoami]

Oppies loser, pappies winner.

I didnt know teres an oppie party in parliament.

 

[whoami]

If you look at how disillusioned the majority of the regulars here are... the hope of outvoting PAP is zero.

Only will pigs fly.

 

[whoami]

I believe PAP would remember the 2011 election. With the current recession situation and high local unemployment rate. The wise choice for them s not only stop issue S Pass to foreign talents, they would stop to renew their S Pass and send back as many foreign talents to their own native countries. So that local PMET would not be displaced, young graduates could land a job.
Otherwise, PAP may encounter a very challenging situation in coming election

The more challenging situation/environment the more sinkies would vote for MIW.

 

[Pinkieslut]

Finally a sensible post.

Sinkies (from top to bottom, MIW and oppies) are (generalising) of this nature:
1. Frog in well. Only see and appreciate things at the superficial level.
2. Living in the past, thinking they are especially hardworking and intelligent (same like HKies now). Well HELLO, Singapore boomed because LKY was shrew to abandon his communist ideals (and betrayed his mates), riding onto the post WW2 Petro-Dollar US Empire, which made the island strategic place ($$$, investments, military intelligence, etc poured into the country). Of course the fact is majority of the people here are of Chinese ethnicity, even the lowest crass villagers have 10X work ethic compared to the tropical natives in SEA region.
3. Elitist, trying to cover their inferiority complex (given most are descended from villagers of low crass genome, even LKY agrees), love to pawn each other.
4. Lack grit, balls, give up easily. No wonder LKY need to wack this bunch of retards into shape. With him gone, these retards lost any kind of drive except to pawn each other, take easy way out.

This problem looks really different from the perspective of an employer and employee. As an employer myself, I can tell you that the gahment is doing its best to get us to employ locals. Every application for an overseas employee has to get pass stringent tests and enquiries of whether we had tried to get local people to do the job in the first place. Many employers have been penalized if they have shown that they didn't try hard enough to employ locals. So you cannot blame the gahment for doing its part.

The problem lies in local sinkees with their poor work attitude and skills. I have seen some sinkees coming in and asking for employment with the attitude like I owe them something. They ask for the sky but ultimately cannot perform. Of course, not all of them are like that. I am only speaking generally. On the other hand, although I hate to say this, but there are many qualified people from overseas who are humble, have good attitude, don't ask much and can do a good job. So as an employer, which will you choose? Many CMI locals will be beating their chest and howling at local job losses, when what they should be doing is look in the mirror and ask themselves this: "Am I good enough to be employable?"

Let me use the analogy of football. The gahment is like the FA of a country. They want to see the football standards go up, so they allow foreign players in to their domestic league. The clubs are like the companies. They will want to win honours by getting the best players in. They don't care about foreign or local players, as long as they are good players willing to win things for the club. Sinkees are like local players. Some are good and can make it playing in the league, some really cannot make it but keep harping on about inequality and discrimination. Like that how?

 

[mojito]

If you look at how disillusioned the majority of the regulars here are... the hope of outvoting PAP is zero.

Not just this or that illusion, but to accept ceca is here to stay, pwp is right on track (now 10mil no more talking 6.9) and NS is a privilege just for you! Be patient. When all this over may be wp ready to form the govt. Does it even matter by then?