Economy after the pandemic Creating jobs for Singaporeans after the pandemic
The Singapore economy will be transformed. 

The global economy in the future will have less global trade. Most countries will manufacture a bigger proportion of their products at home. This will affect Singapore badly. There will be less global trade and the need for financial services. Many of the well paying jobs in the past will disappear.

How can Singaporeans, especially the younger ones, find jobs in the future?

We have no choice. More people will have to accept the jobs created in the domestic economy. These are jobs that rely on foreign workers in the past. 

These jobs include health care, retail, food and beverage, bus drivers, security officers, cleaners, construction workers and the like.

We need to pay adequately for these jobs, so that they allow our locals to make a living. We also have to give them a sense of pride in doing these jobs. We have to create greater flexibility in the working arrangements.

Some of these jobs are in the public sector. The government can afford to pay higher wages. These wages can also set the benchmark for the private sector.

We also have to provide more flexible work arrangements. Instead of requiring the workers to keep to rigid work schedules, they are allowed to work shorter hours (and earn corresponding less), if this fits their personal schedule better. 

The flexible arrangements can work when there is a buffer in the work force and smart scheduling is applied using technology.

Suppose the job of a health care worker, bus driver or security worker pays $20 to $25 an hour. Will this be attractive? A person who works for 160 hours a month can earn $3,200 to $4,000. Jobs that require lower skills can pay a lower rate.

I believe that this will attract locals to take up the jobs. The wages set by the public sector can be the benchmark for the private sector. 

Many private sector businesses cannot afford the higher wage cost over the short term, such as the retail, food or beverage businesses. They can be assisted during a period of adjustment through a wage subsidy. 

Over the longer term, the cost of rental should be reduced. Some of these businesses will introduce automation. The government can fund the new companies that develop and provide automation tools and make them available at low cost.

It will be possible to introduce self driving buses. This will remove the need for the job of bus driving. Instead, the buses should employ a conductor to provide customer service. The job of a conductor is less strenuous than bus driving and is suitable for older people and do not require a high wage to be paid.

A forward looking government will identify useful jobs that can be created for the older workers. There is a need to provide personal care for children and older people or to be guides at public places for locals and tourists. They allow people to continue to work rather than stay unemployed and idle. They do not require to be paid a high wage.

These initiatives require the government to provide the leadership. They have the funds to support these initiatives and remove the business risks. The actual work can be carried out by private businesses, but the state should provide the framework for these initiatives to be sustainable.

Not all jobs will be domestic jobs. We still need jobs to cater for the export market and to serve international customers. However, there will be less of these types of jobs in the future. 

This strategy of creating more domestic jobs will allow us to rely less on foreign workers. This os a more sustainable strategy. It will avoid the kind of problems that caused our economy to be locked down due to the wide spread covid-19 infection among the foreign workers.

I quote the example during the depression during the 1930s in America. President Roosevelt got the federal government to create a million plus jobs to build the infrastructure and the national parks. This kind of bold initiative require the government to take charge. It cannot happen when it is left to the private sector.

Will the Singapore government have leaders that have the vision to lead this change, in the new economic landscape after the pandemic?

Tan Kin Lian

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