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CNA
14 minutes ago
- CNA
Singapore Tonight - Tue 19 Aug 2025
Singapore Tonight From business to politics, health to technology, we bring you up-to-date with the latest news on Singapore and analyze how these events may affect you tomorrow.
Independent Singapore
an hour ago
- Independent Singapore
WP: Singapore should leave no stone unturned to build a resilient nation for the future
SINGAPORE: The Workers' Party (WP) issued a response to Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's National Day Rally speech on August 17, calling on the government to look into all solutions, including ones that have yet to be tapped, in ensuring Singapore's future amid troubled times. The WP, the only opposition party represented in Parliament, quoted the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) as having warned recently concerning the likelihood of persistent global economic uncertainty that could affect hiring and wage growth, particularly in outward-oriented sectors. The MOM also noted a decrease in wage expectations in outward-oriented sectors such as financial insurance services, professional services, transportation, and storage. 'Against this cautious backdrop, the Workers' Party urges the government to engage widely and explore all solutions tabled in good faith, including previously untapped ones. Singapore should leave no stone unturned in our collective efforts to build a truly resilient nation for the future and keep our Singapore flag flying high.' The party also urged the government to address the issues that businesses and employees face, including increasing rental rates. Aside from other effects, this could cause the rate of real income growth of 0.7 per year over the past five years to slow down. The WP also asked for underemployment measures to be urgently tracked and regularly published, as this would allow people to evaluate if the efforts to get workers into suitable full-time employment have been successful. As it has done repeatedly in the past, the party has again called for the implementation of a statutory minimum wage. In a similar vein, the WP repeated its call for aligning Singapore's school curriculum with today's changing needs through a collaboration between the Ministries of Education and Manpower 'to ensure continuous alignment between our education system and the evolving needs of our economy. Singapore should implement skill-demand feedback loops from industry on three levels: (a) curriculum design, (b) funding for structural skill-gap areas, and (c) career guidance for students.' It further called for more allied educators, which would result in smaller class sizes and give students the necessary individual attention to help prepare them for life at a time when AI is increasingly prevalent. 'Ultimately, our goal is to create an education system that develops well-rounded individuals with the confidence and capabilities to succeed in an ever-evolving world,' the WP wrote, calling as well for better safety nets amid AI-related disruptions, such as redundancy insurance and retrenchment benefits for companies with at least 25 employees. As for an issue that several of its MPs have spoken about lately, the job market for the youth, it noted the new government-funded traineeship announced by PM Wong, but urged the government 'to ensure that the programme is designed with safeguards to ensure their effectiveness and fairness. State-sponsored internships and apprenticeships must not be used by companies only as a source of cheaper, subsidised labour.' /TISG See also Analysts predict a 'feel-good' Budget 2025 Read also: 'It's a systemic problem': WP NCMPs invite Singapore's fresh grads to share their job search experiences
Independent Singapore
an hour ago
- Independent Singapore
Jamus Lim: More youth appear to be increasingly disillusioned regarding good job prospects in SG
Photo: YouTube screengrab SINGAPORE: In a Facebook post last week, Workers' Party (WP) Member of Parliament Jamus Lim (Sengkang) tackled two related issues that he said Anchorvale residents had brought up with him—the difficulties the youth today face regarding employment and Singapore's 'ultracompetitive' education system. The MP, who is an Associate Professor of Economics at ESSEC Business School, noted how the youth today 'appeared to be increasingly disillusioned, because they saw little future in terms of good jobs. This untoward outcome is made worse by how many worked hard in our ultracompetitive education system, but now feel betrayed by their absence of career prospects.' He added in his Aug 13 post that because of this situation, young people feel that moving overseas is the only way for them to get a good start in life. Assoc Prof Lim also wrote that as of last year, Singapore's youth unemployment rate was 4.1 per cent, and noted that this is more than twice the 2.0 per cent for the city-state as a whole, although he acknowledged that the figures are consistent with data in other advanced economies. 'When we get down to brass tacks, what such disenchanted youth means is that we may be inadvertently undermining our workforce in the years ahead. If our youth are discouraged from advancing themselves at this early stage of their lives, we may end up with cohorts of young people who do not put in the necessary effort to make something of themselves, because—well, what's the point?' he asked. Assoc Prof Lim added that such a situation could lead some young people to choose 'cash flow-rich jobs, like private hire driving or food delivery services,' as they start out their working lives. Acknowledging that these types of jobs may initially have higher take-home pay or be useful as temporary employment during lean times, 'their upside is almost certainly limited.' He wrote that a resident shared their concern about this trend among the young, and said he shared these concerns in that these types of jobs are 'effectively a form of underemployment' for young people. 'If these issues are indeed symptomatic of a deeper problem—of a broken pipeline from our education system into the workforce—then we have cause to worry. I'm not sure if this is yet the case, at least based on the aggregate statistics. But it's certainly worth monitoring and looking into more, because after all, our youth are our future,' he wrote, adding that the two new NCMPs from the WP, Andre Low and Eileen Chong, are currently seeking feedback from young people regarding their employment concerns. He encouraged the youth to share their experiences with Mr Low and Ms Chong. /TISG Read also: WP MP Louis Chua highlights increasing trend of companies hiring interns instead of fresh graduates () => { const trigger = if ('IntersectionObserver' in window && trigger) { const observer = new IntersectionObserver((entries, observer) => { => { if ( { lazyLoader(); // You should define lazyLoader() elsewhere or inline here // Run once } }); }, { rootMargin: '800px', threshold: 0.1 }); } else { // Fallback setTimeout(lazyLoader, 3000); } });
