Economy after the pandemic
National Jobs Council aims to create 100,000 jobs in 12 months
The National Jobs Council has a challenge to create 100,000 jobs in 12 months.
I wish to suggest how this can be achieved.
We must avoid the temptation to take short cuts to achieve the target. It is easy to create the wrong kinds of jobs. This has happened in the past.
The government has succeeded in creating the following kinds of jobs in the past and currently:
a) Social distancing ambassadors
b) Trainers under Skills Future
Many of the people trained under the Skills Future programs take it as a hobby to spend the money set aside for them. They are not able to get skills to find a suitable job.
These jobs do not achieve the long term goal of maintaining employability.
We need to focus on jobs that are now done by foreign workers and make them acceptable for locals.
We can continue to develop jobs for the economy of the future but we cannot rely on this source alone. It will not create sufficient jobs for the future. We should not overlook the above types of jobs that need to be done and make these jobs attractive for locals.
These jobs include the following:
a) Bus drivers
b) Maintenance and cleaning
c) Food & beverage
To make these jobs acceptable to workers and local employers, the government has to provide financial incentives and set the wages and working conditions.
This is how it can be done:
a) The wages are specified by the government.
b) The government will subsidize 50% of the salaries for one year.
c) The government provides the public sector work at contract sums that the contractors find to be attractive.
In the past, the government outsource the work to the contractors who then offer inferior terms of employment that are not able to attract locals. The one year wage subsidy may change the situation.
It is possible that many locals will enter the food and beverage industry if the terms of employment are attractive. The establishments can pay better wages it they can have the 50% subsidy for one year. Beyond one year, the subsidy can continue at a lower level.
If the government provides contacts for cleaning and maintenance and pays an adequate contract sum, it is possible to specify better terms of employment that can attract the workers.
There is a need to employ a large number of bus drivers. But the nature of the job has to change.
Instead of employing people to drive the bus, we should adopt automated self driving technology. The bus should have conductors who are responsible to provide the customer service and ensure that passengers pay the fares. The work of driving the bus can be taken over by self driving automation - which is feasible for vehicles driving along fixed routes.
I now wish to summarize the key points.
a) To achieve job creation for locals, we have to make it possible for them to accept the jobs that are now being done by foreign workers.
b) The government has to make a fundamental change in the terms of employment. They cannot continue the past practices and expect to get different results.
Tan Kin Lian
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