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Track 'voluntary unemployment'
By Fiona Chan
SINGAPOREANS who complain about foreigners taking away their jobs may be protesting too much, a well-known Singapore economist has said.
Dr Tan Khee Giap, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, yesterday cited figures showing that as of last September, about three out of 10 job vacancies - or 10,140 openings - had been unfilled for at least six months.
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This was roughly the same level as the year before and implies that Singaporeans are turning their noses up at some jobs, he said at a seminar on Budget 2010.
To verify this 'voluntary unemployment', he suggested that every resident worker who is unemployed for more than three months should be made to register with the Workforce Development Agency (WDA), which will have to help him find a job based on his last drawn pay.
The WDA can then track how many times each unemployed person turns down a job - much like the statistics the Housing Board recently revealed of new flat buyers turning down flat options.
Dr Tan believes the WDA rejection rate will be fairly high, and that this will quash the perception there are not enough jobs to go around for Singaporeans. In this way, it would have the same effect as the HDB figures had in terms of public housing.
'WDA should work actively to help citizens get jobs,' he said. 'When these people turn down jobs once, twice, three times, the Government then doesn't have to make apologies about bringing in foreign workers.'
Foreign workers, while unpopular, are necessary for Singapore's growth, which may not be able to rise on higher productivity alone, he said.
This is especially so as the Government has been spending more than it earns - for instance, on help for the needy - and running budget deficits for a number of years now, Dr Tan said.
He made his recommendations at a roundtable session at the Tax Academy of Singapore's annual Budget seminar yesterday, attended by more than 200 tax professionals and business people.
Another speaker was Deloitte & Touche's director of corporate taxes, Mr See Jee Chang, who praised the Government's 'bold' inclusion of softer activities such as training and design in the new Productivity and Innovation Credit, which rewards innovation in companies.
But he said the strategy of targeting specific sectors or activities for help raises questions such as whether the Government should be 'picking winners' and if it is channelling resources away from the most productive use.
Participants at the seminar were also given a rundown on the tax changes in this year's Budget by Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) officers.
Questions were fielded in a panel discussion held by Iras assistant commissioner Chai Sui Fun, Iras group tax specialist Low-Chua Pik Sim, the Ministry of Finance's chief tax policy officer Doreen Tan, and Allen & Gledhill tax consultant Cheong Swee Ying.
The roundtable session on economic strategies, in which Dr Tan and Mr See participated, was chaired by Mr Donald Low, head of the Centre for Public Economics at the Civil Service College.
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
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