Published October 5, 2009

Swee Say worried about Jobs Credit's impact on productivity

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(SINGAPORE) Labour chief Lim Swee Say wants the government to send a clear signal to employers that the Jobs Credit scheme is not here to stay.

By doing so, it would signal to employers that the wage subsidy scheme is for Singapore to buy time in order for companies and workers to upgrade and stay competitive, the NTUC secretary-general told reporters at a grassroots event yesterday, The Straits Times website reported.

Companies which fail to do so will have to move elsewhere, Mr Lim added. He also stressed that employers should not become overly reliant on Jobs Credit.

Hence, the main concern of the labour movement is whether the momentum in improving workers' productivity and enhancing companies' capabilities and adaptability 'will move fast enough'.

The pace is critical. 'As we enter more and more into the upturn, saving jobs is necessary but insufficient,' Mr Lim explained.

Increasingly vital is the need to keep the jobs in Singapore as well as to create jobs, he pointed out, because developed countries, plagued with high unemployment rates, will compete keenly for these jobs as well as job-creating investments.

Mr Lim noted that unemployment in developed countries is 8.5 per cent and headed towards 10 per cent. In Singapore, latest figures show unemployment at 3.3 per cent in June, and Mr Lim credits this to Jobs Credit and Spur, a subsidised training programme. The $4.5 billion Jobs Credit scheme is a one-year aid programme that ends in December. It pays employers 12 per cent of workers' wages for the first $2,500 each month.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is expected to announce on Oct 13, at NTUC's Ordinary Delegates Conference, the outcome of a review of the scheme.