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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Halimah Yacob plays "Tai Chi"...</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>kojakbt_89 <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>8:32 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 3) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>30325.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Halimah Yacob “arrowed” question to her on decline in real earnings of Singaporeans to Tharman
March 20, 2010 by admin
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http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/03/20/halimah-yacob-arrowed-question-to-her-on-decline-in-real-earnings-of-singaporeans-to-tharman/
Written by Our Correspondent
Yesterday we published an article on the decline in the real earnings of Singaporeans which appeared to contradict what was said by PAP MP Halimah Yacob in Parliament two weeks ago.
When asked by fellow MP Inderjit Singh on a detailed study conducted by Swiss banking giant UBS last year which showed that the gross wages of Singaporeans had decreased by 8 percent between 2006 an 2009, Madam Halimah refuted the results and claimed that “anecdotal evidence” showed that there is a “significant” jump of about 20 percent in wages over the same period of time.
“The discrepancy could have come from the limited sample of firms in the UBS study. The study’s figures do not give statistical averages as it covered only a few companies for each profession and city,” she suggested.
[Source: Straits Times, 9 March 2010]
However, the Labor Report 2009 released this Monday by the Ministry of Manpower showed clearly the real earnings of Singaporeans had decreased in the last two years.
“Nominal earnings decreased over the year by 1.6% in the fourth quarter of 2009, easing from the 3.0% decline in the preceding quarter. Earnings in 2009 declined by 2.6%, after rising by 5.4% in 2008. After adjusting for inflation (2009: 0.6%, 2008: 6.6%), the decline in real earnings was 3.2% in 2009, deeper than the contraction of 1.2% in 2008.”
[Source: Ministry of Manpower]
A puzzled netizen emailed Madam Halimah to seek clarification on the apparent discrepancy between what she said in Parliament and the findings of the Labor Report:
Madam Halimah did not answer the question directly and asked the netizen to “look at” Finance Minister Tharman’s explanation instead:
We all know that Madam Halimah is a busy person, but surely it will not take her too much time to explain why she thought that the wages of Singaporeans had jumped by 20 percent when the statistics suggest otherwise.
Furthermore, Finance Minister Tharman’s “explanation” was equally vague and weird as well. He claimed that the influx of foreign workers has helped to “offset” the decline in wages for lower-income workers without substantiating it:
“The healthy growth of wages for low wage families from 2006 to 2008 corresponded with the period when the foreign workforce was growing most rapidly…….It was how we were able to offset the decline in wages for our lower-income group that had taken place in the first part of the decade,” he added.
[Source: Straits Times, 3 March 2010]
Perhaps both Mr Tharman and Madam Halimah should read the explanation provided by Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam from the Reform Party on the inherent discrepancies in the official statistics:
“The majority of these new residents did not have dependents (hence the much faster rise in the resident labour force than the resident population) and all of them would have had jobs so the proportion of working adults in the average resident household would have risen. As a result we would have seen an increase in real median income per household member without any real increase in the median incomes of Singaporean citizens who were already here before this period began, i.e., the majority of us. Another reason why the Minister’s figure is misleading is that it excludes households consisting solely of non-working persons over 60.”
[Source: Reform Party: A complacent Budget]
Mr Tharman once said in Parliament that the Singapore system is based on “trust”. As the above example has shown, we must take the figures and statistics provided by the PAP with a heavy dose of salt from now onwards. How we can trust them when their ministers and MPs don’t even know what they are talking about?
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March 20, 2010 by admin
Filed under Headlines
Leave a comment
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/03/20/halimah-yacob-arrowed-question-to-her-on-decline-in-real-earnings-of-singaporeans-to-tharman/
Written by Our Correspondent
Yesterday we published an article on the decline in the real earnings of Singaporeans which appeared to contradict what was said by PAP MP Halimah Yacob in Parliament two weeks ago.
When asked by fellow MP Inderjit Singh on a detailed study conducted by Swiss banking giant UBS last year which showed that the gross wages of Singaporeans had decreased by 8 percent between 2006 an 2009, Madam Halimah refuted the results and claimed that “anecdotal evidence” showed that there is a “significant” jump of about 20 percent in wages over the same period of time.
“The discrepancy could have come from the limited sample of firms in the UBS study. The study’s figures do not give statistical averages as it covered only a few companies for each profession and city,” she suggested.
[Source: Straits Times, 9 March 2010]
However, the Labor Report 2009 released this Monday by the Ministry of Manpower showed clearly the real earnings of Singaporeans had decreased in the last two years.
“Nominal earnings decreased over the year by 1.6% in the fourth quarter of 2009, easing from the 3.0% decline in the preceding quarter. Earnings in 2009 declined by 2.6%, after rising by 5.4% in 2008. After adjusting for inflation (2009: 0.6%, 2008: 6.6%), the decline in real earnings was 3.2% in 2009, deeper than the contraction of 1.2% in 2008.”
[Source: Ministry of Manpower]
A puzzled netizen emailed Madam Halimah to seek clarification on the apparent discrepancy between what she said in Parliament and the findings of the Labor Report:
Madam Halimah did not answer the question directly and asked the netizen to “look at” Finance Minister Tharman’s explanation instead:
We all know that Madam Halimah is a busy person, but surely it will not take her too much time to explain why she thought that the wages of Singaporeans had jumped by 20 percent when the statistics suggest otherwise.
Furthermore, Finance Minister Tharman’s “explanation” was equally vague and weird as well. He claimed that the influx of foreign workers has helped to “offset” the decline in wages for lower-income workers without substantiating it:
“The healthy growth of wages for low wage families from 2006 to 2008 corresponded with the period when the foreign workforce was growing most rapidly…….It was how we were able to offset the decline in wages for our lower-income group that had taken place in the first part of the decade,” he added.
[Source: Straits Times, 3 March 2010]
Perhaps both Mr Tharman and Madam Halimah should read the explanation provided by Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam from the Reform Party on the inherent discrepancies in the official statistics:
“The majority of these new residents did not have dependents (hence the much faster rise in the resident labour force than the resident population) and all of them would have had jobs so the proportion of working adults in the average resident household would have risen. As a result we would have seen an increase in real median income per household member without any real increase in the median incomes of Singaporean citizens who were already here before this period began, i.e., the majority of us. Another reason why the Minister’s figure is misleading is that it excludes households consisting solely of non-working persons over 60.”
[Source: Reform Party: A complacent Budget]
Mr Tharman once said in Parliament that the Singapore system is based on “trust”. As the above example has shown, we must take the figures and statistics provided by the PAP with a heavy dose of salt from now onwards. How we can trust them when their ministers and MPs don’t even know what they are talking about?
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