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Oral Answer by Minister for Manpower Mrs Josephine Teo to PQ on Support for Jobseekers

Employment practices

NOTICE PAPER NO. 191 OF 2020 FOR THE SITTING ON OR AFTER 5 JANUARY

QUESTION NO. 496 FOR ORAL ANSWER

MP: Gerald Giam

To ask the Minister for Manpower with regard to the Jobs Growth Incentive scheme (a) how does the Ministry derive the support threshold of 50% for mature local hires aged 40 and above; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider increasing this support threshold to 75% to incentivise more employers to hire mature local workers instead of foreign workers.

 

NOTICE PAPER NO. 168 OF 2020 FOR THE SITTING ON OR AFTER 5 JANUARY

QUESTION NO. 267 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

MP: Christopher de Souza

To ask the Minister for Manpower what is being done to help mature workers transition from a badly-hit industry to another industry especially where their educational qualifications may not be as high as younger employees who have had more educational opportunities.

 

NOTICE PAPER NO. 168 OF 2020 FOR THE SITTING ON OR AFTER 5 JANUARY

QUESTION NO. 268 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

MP: Christopher de Souza

To ask the Minister for Manpower what is being done to tackle unemployment after the Jobs Support Scheme is removed for the aviation and tourism-related industries.

 

  1. Members have filed a number of questions on employment support for different groups of jobseekers. I will respond to these related questions together, so that I can give a more holistic treatment.

    Breakdown of placements under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package

  2. The SGUnited Jobs and Skills (SGUJS) Package was launched in April 2020 with the goal of curating 100,000 jobs and skills opportunities for Singaporean workers. From April to October, the National Jobs Council (NJC), working in partnership with employers and unions, placed nearly 60,000 jobseekers into various opportunities. As at end-October, there are more than 123,000 jobs and skills opportunities still available.

     

  3. For the purposes of statistical comparison across countries, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines “standard employment” as work that is full-time, continuous, with a direct relationship between employer and employee. This would exclude employment on fixed-term contracts, temporary employment, part-time employment, multi-party employment, and gig work; all of which are commonly found in modern job markets. This is why the ILO recognises that non-standard employment can provide meaningful opportunities for workers to enter the labour market or to switch sectors and the reason the NJC does not focus narrowly on opportunities that meet the definition of “standard employment”. Instead, the NJC’s aim is to open up pathways for jobseekers to make inroads into the workforce despite global weakness in labour demand. Company-hosted traineeships and attachments as well as curated training courses will help jobseekers who are unable to secure a job acquire industry-relevant skills and exposure. This will improve their employability and position them better for eventual economic recovery.

     

  4. It is encouraging that among the SGUJS placements, about half were into long-term jobs. One in three were into short-term jobs of less than 12-month duration, the remaining were for company-hosted traineeships and attachments or course-based training. Of the available SGUJS opportunities, nearly six in 10 were for long-term jobs, two in 10 were for short-term jobs, and the remainder for company-hosted traineeships and attachments, or course-based training.

    Support for mature jobseekers

  5. Mr Christopher de Souza and Mr Gerald Giam asked about support for mature workers to find jobs and make career transitions. Jobseekers aged 40 and above are well-represented among those placed into opportunities under the SGUJS, comprising around 50% of job placements and 35% of traineeships and attachments, and training opportunities.

     

  6. We have consistently provided more support to help mature workers make career transitions. In the Unity Budget, we introduced the SkillsFuture Mid-Career Support Package for locals in their 40s and 50s, to help them stay employable and enter new jobs or new roles. This provides enhanced support of up to 90% of the cost for employers to reskill mature new employees, as compared to generally up to 70% for other new employees.

     

  7. The Government provided an additional $500 SkillsFuture Credit for those aged 40 to 60 in 2020 to empower them to refresh their skills and enhance their employability. We also built up a pool of volunteer Career Advisors to provide sector and occupation-specific career advice and outline career options.

     

  8. Mature individuals have valuable skills and bring with them a wealth of work experience. However, some mature jobseekers may still face difficulties in finding permanent jobs in the current job market.

     

  9. In September 2020, the Jobs Growth Incentive was launched to support firms in accelerating the hiring of their local workforce. To encourage employers to consider hiring more mature jobseekers, the Government will underwrite 50% of their salaries, up to the first $5,000, for 12 months. This is double the wage support for younger new local hires.

     

  10. The Jobs Growth Incentive should be seen in conjunction with other measures in the overall package. For example, an employer that meets the eligibility criteria for the Jobs Growth Incentive and hires a mature local worker via a Professional Conversion Programme will not only receive the 50% JGI, but also additional salary support and course fee subsidies, as well as further salary support under the Jobs Support Scheme if they are eligible.This approach has the advantage of tilting more support towards jobseekers that are harder to be matched to available openings.

    Support for aviation and tourism-related industries

  11. Mr de Souza asked about the Jobs Support Scheme for the aviation and tourism-related industries.

     

  12. The Government has put in substantial effort and committed close to $100 billion in support measures to help companies and workers deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our economic measures are estimated to have offset some of the rise in resident unemployment rate by about 1.7 percentage points this year. The Ministry of Finance extended the Jobs Support Scheme to cover wages up to March 2021 for sectors that continue to be impacted by COVID-19, such as the Aviation and Tourism sectors, and are reviewing if a further extension is needed.

     

  13. MOT and MTI have also provided targeted support to prepare our businesses and workers to emerge stronger. For the Aviation sector, MOT introduced the Enhanced Aviation Support Package to preserve core capabilities and to support our local carriers to regain air connectivity to the world. For the Tourism sector, MTI worked with industry stakeholders to pilot MICE events and formulate an Event Industry Resilience Roadmap to provide guidance on safe and gradual resumption of business events. STB also launched a domestic tourism campaign and the SingapoRediscovers Vouchers to drive local tourism and stimulate sectoral activity. While the Aviation and Tourism sectors have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, its medium to long-term prospects remain positive.

     

  14. However, unlike in a cyclical downturn, some jobs may not return in their previous forms. Therefore, in addition to the Jobs Support Scheme, we are supporting employers to make use of the downtime to redesign jobs and reskill their employees to take on new job roles. For example, Workforce Singapore (WSG) has rolled out the Job Redesign Reskilling Programme and the Digital Marketing Reskilling Programme to retrain and redeploy workers in hotel and tourism companies.

     

  15. For affected workers who are looking to switch to new careers, we will help them to access jobs and skills opportunities. WSG has set up the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres in all HDB towns and deployed Careers Connect On-the-Go to bring career matching and coaching services closer to jobseekers. This is in addition to physical touchpoints such as WSG Careers Connect, NTUC-e2i’s career centres and WSG-appointed Career Matching Providers, Ingeus and MAXIMUS. Jobseekers can also use WSG’s MyCareersFuture.gov.sg, to search for job opportunities that suit their skills and competencies. The Jobs Growth Incentive will enable firms that continue to do well in the current climate to bring forward their hiring plans. The Government will press on with our efforts to provide employment facilitation support to different groups of jobseekers in different industries, to help them emerge stronger for eventual economic recovery.