Singapore will require many companies operating in the city-state to consider Singaporeans for skilled job vacancies before turning to candidates from abroad, bowing to public pressure over a surge in foreigners over the past decade.
“The measures might mean more hassle and paperwork for companies, and it might even lower the long-term economic growth rate,” said Michael Wan, an economist with Credit Suisse in Singapore.
“But I don’t think this will necessarily lower Singapore’s attractiveness to companies because there are other factors that they take into account — such as tax incentives, political stability and access to the ASEAN region,” he said.
Starting in August next year, firms with more than 25 employees must advertise a vacancy for professional or managerial jobs paying less than S$12,000 (US$9,600) a month on a new jobs bank administered by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency for at least 14 days, the Ministry of Manpower said in a statement.
Only after that period can the company apply for an employment pass to bring in a foreign national.
Singapore will also raise the qualifying salaries for employment pass holders to at least S$3,300 a month, up from the current S$3,000, starting in January, reducing the competition for entry-level jobs that typically require tertiary education.
Singapore, a global financial center and the Asian base for many banks and multinationals, is one of the world’s most open economies. Foreigners account for about 40 percent of the city-state’s 5.3 million population and take up many senior and mid-level positions as well as most of the low-paying jobs that locals shun.
The Association of Banks in Singapore, which represents financial institutions, said banks will need to adjust their hiring processes to comply with the new rules.
“We need to assess the impact these rules will have,” a spokesman for the association added.
Earlier this year, several banks admitted to “hot spots” within their organizations “where clusters of employees from the same country appeared to have developed over time,” according to advertisements taken up by an organization backed by the manpower ministry.
The ministry said it will scrutinize all companies, including smaller firms, for signs of discriminatory hiring practices.
“Even as we remain open to foreign manpower to complement our local workforce, all firms must make an effort to consider Singaporeans fairly,” Singaporean Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan Jin (陳川仁) said in a statement.
“Singaporeans must still prove themselves able and competitive to take on the higher jobs that they aspire to,” Tan added, as officials took pains to stress that the new framework is not aimed at forcing firms to hire Singaporeans first.
Singapore has already been making it harder for employers to recruit cheap workers from abroad in a bid to push up the pay of low-income Singaporeans. The measures include lowering the ratio of foreigners a firm can hire relative to the number of local employees and raising the levy firms must pay to hire lesser-skilled foreigners.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort