Two thirds of jobs created went to foreigners

Lim Hng Kiang has quoted some numbers on jobs created over the last 5 years and how many of these jobs went to locals and foreigners. He said, ‘In the last five years, we have been generating something like 120,000 jobs a year, of which 40,000 are Singaporeans and we end up with 80,000 foreign workers. Going forward we have decided that this is no longer tenable over a long term.’

In summary, over the last 5 years 600,000 jobs were created and only 120,000 went to Singaporeans. Could the numbers be extrapolated backwards for a 10 year period and could the number be 1.2m jobs created with 400,000 going to locals and 800,000 going to foreigners? How long has this ratio of employment favouring foreigner been going on that Hng Kiang now realised that it is unsustainable and must be stopped? He said that his ministry would now be more selective and stringent in the type of companies to bring in and the type of jobs that would be created.

His projection is that this year 80,000 to 100,000 jobs will be created and between 40,000 to 60,000 foreign workers would be added to the workforce. The numbers of jobs created for foreigners would still be around 50 to 60 percent. The country is thus creating more jobs for foreigners than for locals even when the govt is going to be more selective going forward. Only if some of the jobs created can go to local PMETs, the unhappy noises would be much lesser.