Ah yes good old Singapore. The little red dot. The Tiger of the east. The rich kid. Call it what you want, but there is no denying its success story. Going from 3rd world to first, having one of the highest GDPs in the world, the highest concentration of millionaires in the world, one of the world’s busiest port and airport and all of this within about 50 years. You might be mistaken for a fool to deny its glory.
There is a popular saying, “Getting to the top is hard, staying at the top is harder”. In its bid to sustain and fuel its fast-growing economy in the late 90s and early 2000s, Singapore had to depend on a foreign labor force. The local population was deemed as insufficient to sustain the fast-growing economy. Thus there was a huge influx of foreign workers to the Singapore labor force.
Then came the global recession of 2008 and 2009. Singapore was hit hard. Many companies scrambled to balance their books or risk suffering the fate of Merrill Lynch. In Singapore, the situation was not as dire. However, retrenchment exercises took place as companies began to “lean” their manpower in order to ride the global crisis. The foreign worker who could take home a lower salary was favoured over the Singaporean who needed a better pay to cope with the local cost of living and his/her own family expenses. Thus the seeds of unjust were planted between the Singaporean and the foreign worker.
Today amid a slow economy growth (2016 forecast between 1-2%), many Singaporeans still feel that they have lost out to the foreign worker. Graduates find it tough to be employed (many of my friends still are) and mid-career Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs) find themselves being retrenched. The early influx of foreigners and the retrenchment of Singaporeans in the 2008-09 global crisis has left many foreign workers in the entry to mid-level positions across various industries.
However, it is the number of foreigners that still remain and are being favoured for mid-level positions that I would like to focus on.
DPM Tharman recently mentioned that the Singapore workforce is classified into 3 layers. The low, the mid and the high level jobs. He said while the demand for low and high level jobs are growing the need for mid-range workers is shrinking to due to advances in technology. Hence, firms favour foreign workers in these mid-level roles compared to Singaporeans due to cost savings. You see though mid-level jobs are shrinking they still form the “bulk” of the economy. It is also these positions that not only graduates try to occupy but also where PMETs generally occupy. These jobs also tend to have a more generic skillset compared to low and high level jobs which may require a niche skillset. An executive or a manager might have been educated with a niche skill set but his job may not require it at the moment as he/she would be more focused on planning and leading a team which fall under a more generic skillset.
Singaporeans tend to lose out here the most. While the cost of paying a Singaporean manager or executive might be around 3.5K to 5K, the salary of a foreign with the equal generic skillset might be significantly lower.
While the government has introduced a slew of measures to curb the tensions such as lowing the number of work passes being given to foreigners to work here as well as ensuring companies stick to a hiring quota, the situations seems to have only improved slightly. Due to a higher cost of living, graduates entering the mid-level positions are expecting a good pay while PMETs look to be paid more on the basis of their work experience. Thus shunning foreign workers is something companies here are reluctant to abide by. As a result, graduates find it harder to finder jobs or settle for lower qualified jobs and PMETs find themselves out of jobs.
The local population being equipped with such a high quality education and skillset, should be favoured for mid-level, high level as well as toward the higher spectrum of lower level jobs. Many Singaporeans tend to shun the shipping, construction and cleanliness sectors, which is where I feel foreign workers should be concentrated on in high volumes. To help companies bear financial burdens, foreign workers could take more clerical and administrative jobs which do form a sizeable portion of a company’s workforce.
Whatever the solution might be, the hard truth is that we are all passengers of the economy. No matter what measures a government might adopt and implement, companies will always try to find a way to meet that requirement while keep costs at a minimum. How can you blame them?
Singaporeans should take advantage of government schemes to take up a new course not to switch to a different industry, but to be able to take on a dual-role capability in a mid-level paying position. Simply put: To be able to do 2 jobs at once. Thus having a far better advantage over our foreign counterparts. The advantage and skills we possess in the low and high level positions should be consolidated. With a necessary compromise (doing more for a bit less and to be future ready), we should push to secure the mid-level positions as well.
Lastly, foreign labourers come here in search of a brighter future. It is only natural. The unjust we feel in our home land is justified. Let us not resort to putting them down or taking our frustration public. Instead, let’s give them a run for their money!
Featured image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanhayag/