I read the Straits Times reports “Household income up, with biggest rise for poorer families“, “Policy changes ‘helped boost wages at bottom’“, “Face up to slower growth and productivity push: Lim Swee Say“, “Better quality jobs in future amid slower growth: Lim Swee Say” (27 February 2016) with interest.
In short, households with at least 1 working adult saw their household income increase in 2014. The bottom 10% households saw the largest increase with 10.7%; bottom 20th percentile was 8.3%; bottom 30th percentile was 7.2%. This was attributable to the Government’s redistributive policies including the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS). The other reason attributable is the tightening of foreign labour. This increased wages especially at the bottom percentile income-earners.
Juxtaposed against this report is one on a forum on tripartism. At the forum, Minister of Manpower Lim Swee Sway noted that Singapore can expect slower growth in future but should increase productivity. Further, while old jobs may be lost due to automation and restructuring, new types of jobs would be formed. Foreign labour policies will be tightened. This should increase wages further. Then labour chief Minister Chan Chun Sing chipped in to say that Singapore’s future is caught in a dilemma. Must stay competitive in the global world but will face slower growth and uncertainty.
The uncertainty of the future is indeed worrying. Increasing automation will likely reduce the number of low-skilled jobs. This inevitably means that workers at the lowest percentiles would lose their jobs. They are also likely to be the ones least able to adapt to take on higher-skilled jobs.
I do not envy the Singapore Government’s responsibility in this regard but it has to consider ways at present to prepare for that future. That’s why Lim Swee Sway has said that the “Government, businesses and the labour movement were in the midst of identifying skills and jobs of the future in 25 sectors of industry, so they could design better careers for most”. But better careers means higher-skilled jobs. What then of the presently lower-skilled workers?
Given also the frail global economy, the Singapore Government is expecting less revenue, which means less to redistribute to people in the lower percentiles.
This calls for paradigm shifts. In preparation for slower growth, we could also expect to facilitate corporates to reduce profitability and increase inclusivity. Shareholders and investors, of whom the Singapore Government is one of the largest, could call for long-term sustainability over short-term numerical profitability. With greater automation, it could mean less manual labour jobs and more service jobs. With the tightening foreign labour policy, the service sector is already presently seeing higher demand for workers. It means that the re-training of workers whose jobs may be made obsolete should be focussed on soft skills rather than technical skills. In any case, whatever re-training and job reallocation programmes that will be introduced have to be implemented carefully with prior education and awareness-raising which has to reach people on the ground in ways that they can presently access and appreciate.
I hope that amidst the uncertainty, there can be optimism of opportunity rather than insecurity.