Hi everyone, just need some advice on how to get a working visa?
We have sent multiples of cv to job applications but my bf doesn't
even get a response from the simplest of job in Singapore. Just so
because they ignore him because he is living abroad for
now?...
We are in desperate need of advice... :(
Business Times - 11 Jan
2012
Firms hit by tightened foreign worker inflows
Construction sector is still worst hit, with 70% of contractors
seriously affected: survey
By TEH SHI NING
(SINGAPORE) Businesses are feeling the severe pinch of tightened
foreign worker inflows, a recent survey shows, even as there are
renewed pleas for a review of policy changes aimed at reducing
Singapore's reliance on foreign manpower.
Some 45 per cent of the 251 companies polled recently by the
Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry reported
'serious' or 'very serious' business repercussions from shrunken
foreign labour supply.
Woes arising from foreign labour shortages stood out as the issue
weighing companies down amid a wider economic slowdown, said SCCCI
secretary-general Lim Sah Soon. He thinks it no surprise that more
than half of those polled now hope for a review of the foreign
worker policy at the upcoming Budget 2012.
One suggestion is for targeted tightening - to allow more foreign
hiring in sectors which have found it impossible to hire locals for
crucial jobs despite offering higher salaries. Others seek
subsidised training for foreign workers, or low-cost job-matching
portals to help them find 'suitable and affordable local workers',
SCCCI said.
Such appeals are not confined to SCCCI's members. Preliminary
results from the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) survey of
members' expectations for this year's Budget yielded similar
findings. Some 40 per cent of those polled seek employment
assistance and human resource issues.
'Manpower issues, coupled with recent changes in foreign worker
policies and labour laws, rank high on the list of business
concerns,' said SBF chief executive Ho Meng Kit. 'In sectors like
construction, hospitality and manufacturing, companies still face
difficulty hiring locals. It does not help that foreign labour is
becoming less accessible and affordable.'
According to the SCCCI survey, the construction sector is still
worst hit, with 70 per cent of contractors seriously
affected.
And demand for workers in this sector, at least, is unlikely to
ease despite the slowing economy. For its public housing building
programme alone, Singapore will need about 30,000 construction
workers this year, up from 18,000 last year. Cumulative demand
could rise to 45,000 in the next few years, National Development
Minister Khaw Boon Wan said in response to MP Arthur Fong in
Parliament. An employer in the construction sector is allowed to
hire seven work permit holders for every full-time local
employee.
Manufacturing too, has been badly hit by the lower quotas and
higher levies too, if the 67 per cent of firms indicating so in
SCCCI's survey is anything to go by.
Even for the electronics sector, whose production has shrunk in
recent months, Ronnie Wong, president of the Association of
Electronic Industries in Singapore (AEIS) says that member
companies involved in electronics manufacturing, precision
machining, parts and components assembly estimate a 10-30 per cent
drop in business due to the reduction in foreign workers.
Of the services firms polled by SCCCI, a smaller 36 per cent saw a
significant negative impact on business from the foreign worker
policy revisions. But Mr Lim points out the ones that are crucial
to the tourism sector, such as hospitality and F&B players, are
by nature labour intensive and have been affected, with
consequences for service standards too.
Alan Goh of Katrina Holdings, which owns several Clarke Quay
restaurants and the BALIthai chain, says it is hard to quantify the
impact on revenue but costs have risen by 20-25 per cent due to
higher foreign worker levies. Several of his chefs, who lack the
qualifications that more stringent criteria for pass renewals now
demand, have left Singapore, landing him in the sub-optimal
situation of relying on six-month trainees with no
continuity.
Mr Goh thinks more in-depth research needs to be devoted to study
the manpower needs of each sector before such policies are
effected. 'There is this widespread misconception that the services
sector is unwilling to pay locals more, but the truth is that
locals shun these jobs for other reasons,' he says.
The SCCCI survey indicates that other than low pay and long work
hours, local workers also tend to leave or shun SMEs for better job
prospects in larger companies.
All this seems to indicate that the manpower crunch has not eased
despite a weakening economy. In fact, one reason for Singapore's
projected slower growth of 1-3 per cent this year is the tightened
inflow of foreign workers, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in
his New Year's Message.
'Admitting fewer foreign workers also means forgoing business
opportunities and accepting slower growth,' he said, adding that
this is why 'we must do our utmost to raise productivity, to make
up in quality what we will miss in quantity'.
Companies affected by restricted access to foreign labour are not
sitting on their hands and whining about it though, SCCCI's Mr Lim
says. Coping mechanisms include more automation of processes,
engaging sub-contractors or hiring older workers and
ex-convicts.
Some business owners have also taken pay cuts and taken on more
operational roles themselves, he says.
But there is a limit to what can be done before companies 'squeeze
blood from their workers'. Businesses can adapt with
computerisation and factory automation, but operators are still
needed and local ones can be elusive, says Yeo Cheong Guan,
managing-director of Eng Bee Paper Merchant, who attributes a 15-20
per cent fall in business to the policy revisions.
Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng finds it interesting that so many
firms still face worker shortages, given that the economy,
excluding biomedical manufacturing, has contracted for three
quarters now.
But this lingering labour market tightness could be good news in
that it suggests a 'significant buffer before the economy as a
whole sheds jobs', he says.
'At the end of the day, the margins of firms could be squeezed and
some may have to relocate out of Singapore. Worker shortages may
constrain the pace of recovery, when it comes. This will be painful
but is the inevitable cost of restructuring,' says Mr Kit.
