Ministry of Manpower Many manpower ministers - no solution
Many ministers were appointed to be in charge of the manpower ministry over the past four decades - Lee Boon Yang, Ng Eng Hen, Gan Kim Yong, Lim Swee Say, Tan Chuan Jin and Josephine Teo.

They were not able to solve the problem of finding jobs for our local professionals, managers, executives and technical (PMETs). 

They do not understand the root of the problem. They continued to applied the same approach - which failed for the past decades. 

As our cost of doing business continued to escalate over the years, many manufacturing and service businesses went offshore. Those that remain needed to have low cost labor to continue their operations. 

The PMETs bore the brunt of this structural change. They lost their jobs and had to take low paying jobs to continue their livelihoods. They became taxi drivers and "business and marketing consultants". They engaged in new business ventures. Many of the new ventures did not succeed.

The displaced PMETs accepted their fate. They were fortunate to be cushioned off by the rising values of their HDB flats and private properties. They were able to cope financially, in spite of a drastic drop in income.

The financial cushion will not be available for the next generation of PMETs and also the new graduates who will find it difficult to get low paying jobs. 

All this while, the structural problems were not solved by the many changes in manpower ministers.

Maybe, the government was blinded by the revenue of $4 billion to $5 billion a year that is collected on foreign worker levies. It was a good source of income.

Sadly, pay-back time had arrived. The spread of covid infections in the foreign worker dormitories caused the government to call for a circuit breaker to deal with the problem. A total of $95 billion was spent during three months to deal with this problem. It probably took away 20 years of the foreign worker levies. 

The revenue that was earned from the foreign worker strategy was totally spent. We are still left with the problem of displaced PMETs and growing numbers of new graduates who cannot get enough jobs.

The future is bleak for the local workers. 

Tan Kin Lian
 

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