Manpower minister urges employers & workers to stay flexible, positive

Stay positive, stay flexible and stay together – that’s how Singapore’s government, labour movement and employers’ federation will weather the global economic downturn.
The annual dialogue brought together key players from Singapore’s tripartite partnership.
One participant said he had no need to send his workers to the national skills upgrading scheme, SPUR, and asked if the subsidies [...]

Boost to hiring, retention

TWO new measures to help local workers get jobs and stay employed will cost the Government $100 million over two years.
One will give companies a grant of up to $400,000 to hire and hang on to trained workers.
This programme is called Spur-Jobs, which is an add-on to the existing Skills Programme for Upgrading and [...]

MOM to mediate for SIA

SINGAPORE Airlines and its pilots’ union are still at loggerheads over the issue of no-pay leave to cut costs, weeks after negotiations began.
Now, the Manpower Ministry (MOM) has been asked to step in and mediate.
At the heart of the dispute: The number of no-pay leave days pilots should take a month.

Manpower Ministry launches new skills programme to help PMETs

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) are introducing a new scheme to help professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) to survive the current recession.
Called the Professional Skills Programme (PSP), it will bring together all current skills upgrading and job assistance schemes.
The PSP was announced during a tripartite forum between [...]

Jobs Credit and Spur already helping workers, firms weather downturn

FOR more than a week, the announcements kept coming as the ministries rolled out their plans and proposals for this year and the years ahead. On Friday, it was slightly different.
Parliament came full circle as the debate on the Budget and Government expenditure ended on the same note on which it started: Jobs.
But where Members [...]

MOM takes 3-pronged approach to help workers & firms weather downturn

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Manpower Ministry (MOM) has spelt out a three-pronged strategy to help workers and companies weather the downturn and emerge stronger.
They are helping businesses remain viable, saving jobs and helping the unemployed find work.
Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong also gave details of the one-off Workfare Special Payment announced in the Budget’s Resilience Package.
The [...]

Fewer unfilled job vacancies due to softening labour market

SINGAPORE: With a softening labour market and more job seekers to choose from, employers are reporting fewer job vacancies that are unfilled for six months or more.
According to its latest Job Vacancies Report, the Manpower Ministry (MOM) says that only 28 per cent of openings in September last year were unfilled for six months or [...]