This maybe another reason:
Mellanie Hewlitt
Singapore Review
10 Jan 2005
JOB MARKET IMPERFECTIONS? LIVE WITH IT!!!
An analysis of Labor Department data by EPI found that in 2002,
18.1
per cent
of the long-term unemployed had college degrees, up from 14 per
cent
in 2000.
Similarly, 20.1 per cent were from the executive, professional
and
managerial
category, compared with 14.2 per cent in 2000.
With no viable solutions available from Singapore's highly
paid
ministers, the
only respite to the current economic gloom is a quick recovery
and
turn around
of the US economy. Otherwise Singapore's next batch of PHD and
MBA
scholars
will have employment selling char kway teow or flipping burgers
in
Mac-Donald's.
In the 12 July 2003 issue of the Straits Times, Lydia Lim's
article
reads; "SLOWLY but surely, reality is sinking in in the psyches
of
out-of-work",
"NIGHT SHIFT? NO PROBLEM", "FROM CORPORATE BANKER TO DIAPER
CHANGER".
More recently in the 9 Jan 2005 issue of the Straits Times,
"She gave up $10,000 a month bank job" and "He graduated to
selling
prata"
(attached below)
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sammyboymod/messages/?msg=63929.1
Reading between the lines, it seems that local papers are
endorsing
this dismal
state and telling readers and Singaporeans to accept and live
with
this
imperfect situation.
The startling fact is that even with a supposedly rosy
economy,
soaring
unemployment rates amongst Singaporeans remain above 4.5%. There
is
an over
supply of middle management professionals who are now forced
to
compete for
lower tiered jobs with fresh graduates and non-graduates.
It seems that the recovering economy that is much touted by
local
government
controled papers have not translated into reduced unemployment
rates
for local
Singaporeans. There are already many examples of
overqualified
professionals
who are forced into menial enterprise. Many become cab-drivers
or
hawkers to
tide over the bad times. Did these professionals spend years
in
university just
to be security guards, hawkers or cab drivers?
From an economic perspective, education is a scarce resource
and
there is huge
amount of wastage in terms of unutilised skills and talents.
What is even more amusing is the latest attempt by the local
papers
and mass
media, to glorify such cases (see 12 Jan 2003 issue of the
New
Paper "From
banking man (earning five-digit monthly pay) to Golden Mile
nasi
lemak man
Why"). See also the 9 Jan 2005 issue of the Straits Times, "She
gave
up $10,000
a month bank job" and "He graduated to selling prata" (attached
below)
Does the current system work, or is it making an already bad
unemployment
situation, even worse? Only in Singapore do we have a government
that
is so
engrossed with the accumulation of paper qualifications, that
they
have long
since forgotten the original objective behind the education
system,
and have
instead identified the means as an end to itself.
In their blind pursuit of their version of a utopian society,
educational
elitetism takes center stage above all else, eclipsing the
actual
needs of the
labour market itself. The distortions in the demand and supply
chain
is most
acute in industries that are dominated by State Owned Entities
and
Government
Linked Companies who are also affectionately known by locals
as "Scholar Havens"
This growing number of graduates employed in menial labour is
not
something to
be proud of. It is a sign that the system is not putting scarce
and
valuable
resource to good use. What is even more appalling is that instead
of
acknowledging this defect exists in the system and looking
for
solutions to
address the problem, policy makers and local papers are
telling
unemployed
professionals and graduates to "live with it".
Unemployed professionals are told that it is "imperative for
those
out of work
to follow the lead of their more enlightened counterparts, who
dared
to say:
Social status be damned, I need a job." This totally avoids the
crux
of the
problem!
The underlying issue here is that due to the inability of the
domestic economy
to generate higher echelon jobs, and a very weak employment
market,
graduates
(and Professionals) are often unable to find jobs in positions
that
they were
academically trained for.
This is not a failing on the part of the individual, but rather
a
failing on
the part of the system, and yes, ultimately the government. And
a
necessary
step in addressing this defect is to acknowledge that it exists
and
needs to be
fixed.
But then again, in Singapore it is far easier to change a
person's
mindset and
expectations, instead of finding an actual solution to a
worsening
problem. And
policy makers here have elected the easier and more convenient
route.
