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SINGAPORE: Despite efforts to create more new jobs, retrenchment numbers this year could be higher than last year, as companies are continuing to relocate elsewhere.
Still, Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), Mr Lim Swee Say, said that Singapore's unemployment rate is among the lowest in the world.
He added that this is due to the efforts of the tripartite partners' in the last five to ten years to minimise the mismatch between jobs and skills.
The NTUC chief said that Singapore is among the top ten countries in the world that enjoys full employment today. Last year, some 234,900 jobs were created and unemployment stood at 2.1 per cent. This was a 10-year low.
However, Mr Lim warned against sliding into complacency because the pace of restructuring among companies is expected to pick up this year.
He said: "In the process of economic restructuring, jobs may be relocated to lower cost locations. And yet at the same time, as we create new jobs and better paying jobs, we would be able to help existing workers take on new paying jobs through a process of what we call redeployment.
"The job employment opportunities in Singapore is like a ladder. On this ladder, different persons will join the ladder at different points. But once you are on this ladder, we want to create the space for everyone to move up."
Under the process of redeployment, a worker retrenched from one company is trained under the Job Recreation Programme and then redeployed to another company. This could be for the same type of job he was doing before or an entirely different job.
The Labour chief said that one way forward is for the workforce to remain productive, especially when there is no way Singapore can resist global challenges.
The labour unions' vision is for the Singapore workforce to always remain the best in the world. And in order to achieve that, Mr Lim feels that workers must not lose sight of the importance of training and re-training to upgrade their skills.
In fact during previous downturns, plans like the Skills Redevelopment Programme and the Job Re-creation Programme have played a big role in ensuring that today's workers remain employable.
Mr Lim's vision for Singapore is to go for the triple achievement of full employment, higher growth rate and one of the highest employment rates for all ages and both sexes.
While this will not be easy, he believes Singapore has a better chance of succeeding because of its unique strength in tripartism. - CNA/vm
Click here to read Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong's May Day message.
The President of the Singapore National Employers Federation, Stephen Lee's May Day message can also be read here.
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