On 2 April 2011, Channel NewsAsia (CNA) aired ‘A Political Forum
on Singapore’s Future’, featuring Finance Minister Tharman
Shanmugaratnam and Member of Parliament (MP) Josephine Teo
representing the People’s Action Party (PAP), Gerald Giam for the
Worker’s Party, Lina Chiam for the Singapore People’s Party,
Vincent Wijeysingha for the Singapore Democratic Party and Mr
Mohamed Nazem Suki for the Singapore Democratic Alliance.
During the forum, issues such as employment, cost of living, the
influx of foreign talent, housing and GST were raised.
In this article, Leong Sze Hian examines the
statements and statistics put forward by the ruling party.
Jobs
“80 per cent of PMET jobs go to Singaporeans”
What is the source of this statistic? To the best of my
knowledge, no Ministry of Manpower (MOM) report or media report has
ever disclosed this data. So, is the speaker privy to data that no
one is aware of?
If so, then, it obviously raises serious issues of transparency
and accountability – why is it that only when there is a political
debate on TV does such data become available?
By the way, is the 80 per cent in reference to all PMETs
currently employed? What about PMETs who are unemployed? What
about PMETs who are undergoing training because they can’t find a
job, who are not counted as unemployed? What about the new PMET
jobs created that went to Singaporeans – 80 per cent.
Also, since labour data is always not broken-down into
Singaporeans and permanent residents (PRs), does the 80 per cent
refer to locals or Singaporeans?
Unemployment
“Our unemployment rate today is 2.1 per
cent”
This is the overall unemployment rate, including foreigners. The
unemployment rate for locals is 3.1 per cent. No one knows what the
unemployment rate is for Singaporeans.
Quotas for foreign workers?
“Quotas to employing foreigners”
The quotas only apply to work permits. 25 per cent of a
company’s total work force can be S-Pass, while there is no quota
for employment passes, i.e 100 per cent of the work force can be
EPs.
And of course, there is no quota for PRs. So the entire work
force can be PRs.
A total of 115,900 jobs were created in Singapore for the whole
of last year. Local employment grew by 56,200.
Actually, as foreign employment grew by 59,700, it means that
the rate of change of growth in foreign employment over the
previous year’s minus 4,200, was about four times more than that
for locals over the previous year’s 41,800.
This is despite the consistent rhetoric that the influx of
foreign workers will be curtailed.
Also, since the data for locals is not broken down into
Singaporeans and PRs, how many of the jobs created actually went to
Singaporeans?
As of December 2010, there were 1,992,700 locals in employment,
forming around two in three of the 3,105,900 persons employed in
Singapore. The remaining 1,113,200 were foreigners.
If say 20 per cent of the locals are PRs, then about 49 per cent
or one in two workers in Singapore are foreigners. This I believe
is the highest ever for the ratio of foreign workers to
Singaporeans.
So much for quotas!
Longest working hours in the world?
“High quality of life”
Singaporeans have the longest working hours in the world,
beating the South Koreans who previously held the top position.
According to the Singapore Census of Population 2010, 228,856
workers worked between 50 – 54 hours, 73,761 between 55 – 59 hours,
134,716 between 60 – 64 hours, and 142,551 65 hours and over.
This means that 579,884 persons worked at least 50 hours, which
is about 31 per cent of all workers in Singapore.
4,709 aged 65 and above worked 65 hours and over, 2,609 worked
60 – 64 hours, 1,931 worked 55 – 59 hours, and 3,553 worked 50 – 54
hours.
4,023 persons worked 40 – 44 hours, 1,688 worked 45 –49 hours,
1,329 worked 50 – 54 hours, 849 worked 55 – 59 hours, 1,095 worked
60 – 64 hours, and 2,289 worked 65 hours & over – all of these
people for less than S$500.
Wages
“Median wage increase in Singapore”
According to the Report on Labour Force in Singapore 2010, the
real median gross monthly income from work rose by only 0.5 per
cent last year.
In the light of Singapore’s record GDP growth of 14.5 per cent
last year, this increase is very small indeed.
As the median income was S$2,000 in 2000, after adjusting for
inflation to the median income of S$2,500 in 2010, does it mean
that the real income growth over the last decade or so was only
just over one per cent per annum?
GST
“The rich person pays more GST as they
consume more goods and services”
GST is a regressive tax as the poor pay more, as a
percentage of their income, than the rich. So, it hurts the
lower-income more, on a relative basis to higher income
earners.
HDB
“High percentage of home ownership”
“85 per cent of the bottom 20 per cent own their
homes”
Why are there no regular statistics of how many HDB loan and HDB
bank loans are in arrears over three months, HDB bank loan
foreclosures, etc?
I estimate loans in arrears to be about 38,000 and about 60
foreclosures a month. What price have Singaporeans paid for this
highest percentage of home ownership in the world – how many have
lost their homes, CPF, been made bankrupt?
“People are paying only 23 per cent for their
mortgage”
This is the now infamous HDB statistic, which only captures data
of those who currently have mortgages. Those who can’t afford won’t
buy, and those who can’t afford would have given up their flats.
So, thoe who still have mortgages surely must be able to afford to
pay!
