Due to the government’s inability to ensure job security, Minister of State Chan Chun Sing called for Singaporeans to be “open minded” and that changing job is going to be the norm:
“Workers here have to be prepared to take up more than two jobs throughout their careers, and this means coping with multiple transitions… What we are used to in the past, one or two jobs for our entire career, now may become a series of different jobs, where career transitions become part of the norm.”
Delivering his speech yesterday (May 1) at Tampines Hub, the NTUC Secretary General blamed technology disruption as the leading cause behind the spike in job losses in Singapore and played with words saying “disrupt ourselves before others disrupt us”:
“Whichever country can get this right will help its people the most. Those who cannot solve these challenges will have a lot of problems, from socio-economic to others … The challenge is disrupt ourselves before others disrupt us.”
Singapore’s economy has been badly hit by the declining oil prices, which led to the crashing of the country’s maritime, oil and gas sector. The government however refuse to acknowledge the impact of oil prices on Singapore and instead blame “disruptive technologies” when there is none. The only disruptive technology that trended in Singapore is the taxi applications like Uber and Grab, but taxi drivers enjoyed higher income and better opportunities. Singapore’s economic woes lies with the slump in construction and manufacturing sector, due to the crash in property prices for the former and cheaper labour rate in regional South East Asia. Blaming “disruptive technologies” is in essence a fake news propagated by the minister.
Also speaking at the May Day event is Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who exaggerated his role in helping workers and claimed that unions overseas do not care about their unemployed:
“NTUC takes care of those who have jobs — helps them keep their jobs. For those who have lost their jobs, NTUC helps them get replacement jobs. For those who are still in school, NTUC works with the Government and businesses to keep this economy going so they will have jobs when they come out from school. Unions elsewhere don’t think about those who are jobless, and especially the young who have yet to enter the job market.”
Despite Lee Hsien Loong’s boasting about NTUC’s all-encompassing abilities, actual labour statistics show that unemployment rate has hit 3% for citizens and that job losses reached a 14-year-high in Q1 2017.
The May Day event ended with Lee Hsien Loong, Chan Chun Sing, Lim Swee Say and NTUC cronies holding hands singing “Solidarity Forever”.