SINGAPORE, May 1 — While the unemployment rate is expected to creep up further as the economy matures, the government will be working to help businesses create new jobs, get displaced workers re-employed, and train employees to develop in their current jobs, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong today. 

Speaking at the May Day Rally held at Our Tampines Hub, Lee said that in order for Singapore to continue to prosper, “it comes down to three things - jobs, jobs and jobs, but three different ways of thinking about jobs”. 

“Creating new jobs by bringing in new businesses and investments... Finding replacement jobs for workers who have lost their jobs or are out of work, and training workers to grow in their current jobs, to do something bigger, more productive,” he said. 

In creating new jobs, Singapore will depend on its “winning formula” of bringing in new businesses and investments. 

For instance, chip-maker Micron recently invested S$5.4billion (RM16.78 billion) and its expansion here led to 500 jobs being created. 

At the same time, the government is helping those who have lost their jobs find new ones, particularly for industries which are not doing well, such as the oil sector. 

With oil prices falling sharply, and an overcapacity leading to no new orders for drilling rigs in the past two years, the offshore and marine industry has lost about 30,000 jobs since its last peak.

While foreign workers were the first to be let go, some Singaporean workers have been affected. Last year, about 1,000 workers in the industry lost their jobs and “another few hundreds” are expected to do so this year. 

Lee said the unions have been helping the affected workers find new jobs in other sectors that need similar skills, such as the transport and aviation industries. Retrenched engineers from offshore and marine industries can find new jobs there, with some retraining, for example. 

Lee reiterated that workers need to constantly upgrade, like what employees in other countries are doing. 

He related the anecdote of a visit by unionists to a few factories in Chengdu, where they saw the Chinese workers doing online learning at night after work in their dormitories. 

“Unless we are as hungry and determined as them...I think our cheese will be stolen,” said Lee, noting that national skills redevelopment programme SkillsFuture has given Singapore a good head start. 

Over the past week, Lee as well as Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say had warned that the unemployment rate is expected to go up in the future. 

Today, Lee noted that the unemployment rate has climbed to 2.3 per cent due to economic re-structuring.

This is low compared to developed countries, which have typically much higher unemployment rates of at least 5 per cent, and sometimes even as high as 10 per cent, he said.

However, he pointed out: “Our unemployment rate will gradually tend to creep up. We are feeling the same pressures as other developed countries, the industries have to continue restructuring. Our workforce Is getting older, and older workers who lose jobs tend to take longer to find new jobs, and to get back into the workforce.”

Singapore has to understand the trend but at the same time work hard to resist it, and keep its workers in jobs, Lee said. — TODAY