Thank god we paid him so much. Otherwise, how would we have known to stay positive?
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Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Jan 31, 2009
Job Losses in Singapore
Stay positive: Gan
By Zakir Hussain and Goh Chin Lian
-- BT FILE PHOTO
ACTING Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong has urged Singaporeans not to lose heart in the face of rising layoffs and unemployment.
'We can take a positive attitude and focus on helping workers cope with this recession. If we work together, we will be able to ride out this recession together,' he told reporters at a community event.
Mr Gan's comments last night, ahead of a Chinese New Year dinner in his Chua Chu Kang ward, came hours after his ministry released a report showing job losses last year hitting a five-year high of 16,000.
Most of the losses took place in the last three months of 2008, when the global financial crisis grew more severe.
This year, Mr Gan expects job losses to continue rising in the first two quarters, 'because the economy is likely to continue to contract'.
'But I think rather than focusing on projections, what we want to do is focus on saving jobs,' he added.
Highlighting the Resilience Package in the new $20.5 billion Budget, Mr Gan said the Government was working very closely with its tripartite partners - employers and unions - to see how it could help companies cut costs and save jobs as well as continue to help Singaporean workers upgrade their skills.
Better-skilled workers will be more cost-competitive and attractive, and hopefully can retain their jobs, he added.
Mr Gan cited two new schemes as being particularly beneficial to companies and workers.
One is the Jobs Credit, which pays part of a worker's wage, and the other is the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience, or Spur, which subsidises a substantial part of the training of a worker.
Asked if more needed to be done to save jobs, given the latest retrenchments at Chartered Semiconductor, he said: 'In a recession, companies have to restructure and, in the process of restructuring, retrenchments may not be totally avoidable.'
He added that those laid off could turn to Spur and train for jobs in such growing industries as education and health care.
Mr Gan also expressed the hope that Jobs Credit would help minimise layoffs, which analysts expect to surpass the 1998 high of about 30,000.
He was also asked about the goals labour chief Lim Swee Say set for unionists the previous day.
One of them was to keep the resident unemployment rate below the 5.2 per cent high in Sars-stricken 2003. Latest figures put it at 3.2 per cent last year.
Describing the goal as 'very ambitious and challenging', Mr Gan added: 'We should not shy away from the target just because it is challenging or difficult to achieve.'
===================================
Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Jan 31, 2009
Job Losses in Singapore
Stay positive: Gan
By Zakir Hussain and Goh Chin Lian
-- BT FILE PHOTO
ACTING Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong has urged Singaporeans not to lose heart in the face of rising layoffs and unemployment.
'We can take a positive attitude and focus on helping workers cope with this recession. If we work together, we will be able to ride out this recession together,' he told reporters at a community event.
Mr Gan's comments last night, ahead of a Chinese New Year dinner in his Chua Chu Kang ward, came hours after his ministry released a report showing job losses last year hitting a five-year high of 16,000.
Most of the losses took place in the last three months of 2008, when the global financial crisis grew more severe.
This year, Mr Gan expects job losses to continue rising in the first two quarters, 'because the economy is likely to continue to contract'.
'But I think rather than focusing on projections, what we want to do is focus on saving jobs,' he added.
Highlighting the Resilience Package in the new $20.5 billion Budget, Mr Gan said the Government was working very closely with its tripartite partners - employers and unions - to see how it could help companies cut costs and save jobs as well as continue to help Singaporean workers upgrade their skills.
Better-skilled workers will be more cost-competitive and attractive, and hopefully can retain their jobs, he added.
Mr Gan cited two new schemes as being particularly beneficial to companies and workers.
One is the Jobs Credit, which pays part of a worker's wage, and the other is the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience, or Spur, which subsidises a substantial part of the training of a worker.
Asked if more needed to be done to save jobs, given the latest retrenchments at Chartered Semiconductor, he said: 'In a recession, companies have to restructure and, in the process of restructuring, retrenchments may not be totally avoidable.'
He added that those laid off could turn to Spur and train for jobs in such growing industries as education and health care.
Mr Gan also expressed the hope that Jobs Credit would help minimise layoffs, which analysts expect to surpass the 1998 high of about 30,000.
He was also asked about the goals labour chief Lim Swee Say set for unionists the previous day.
One of them was to keep the resident unemployment rate below the 5.2 per cent high in Sars-stricken 2003. Latest figures put it at 3.2 per cent last year.
Describing the goal as 'very ambitious and challenging', Mr Gan added: 'We should not shy away from the target just because it is challenging or difficult to achieve.'
