Rilek1Corner

Tag: unemployment

  • (Reader Contribution) I’m An Engineering Graduate And I Haven’t Secured A Job For Months Now

    (Reader Contribution) I’m An Engineering Graduate And I Haven’t Secured A Job For Months Now

    The issue of our graduates still being unemployed after months of applying for one. How best do we solve the high unemployment rate among graduates?

    ***

    “So after 1 month since my convocation, 3 months since my last exam in NTU (should be 6 months since I applied for job), I still couldn’t secure a job. I am worried of not being able to get a job by end of this year as the economic is getting worse and worse.

    Only went for < 3 interviews so far… Below are the prob I can think of now:

    1. My resume sucks. Well, I have edited (don’t know how many times) my resume to make it more professional.
    2. Working experience.
    2.1 I was working in the lab and helping them in their research project. Nowadays most of research companies are hiring Phd and Science students but not engineering student.
    2.2 I did apply for engineering job which is related to my major. I worked as engineering intern when I was a poly student but most of the job I have done was just office job.
    3. Academic results. Not even 2nd upper class honours. So this maybe the reason? I’m not expecting my salary will be very high. My expected salary range: $2700/2800 to $3000

    I wonder anyone is in the same situation as me? Anyway, all the best for those still looking for a job.”

    Source: Engineering student

  • SDP: Just Whom Is The PAP’s Education Policy Serving

    SDP: Just Whom Is The PAP’s Education Policy Serving

    When he was Minister of State for Education, Dr Ng Eng Hen said that “Our universities must become engines of growth for our economy.”

    In 2012, Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang reinforced this point saying that our education system is “to build industry-relevant manpower capabilities for the economy.”

    We had even wanted to become the ‘Boston of the East’, with our universities modeled on Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    But Education Minister Ong Ye Kung now says that the number of graduates will be capped at 30 to 40 percent of the student population because the government had, in the past. placed an over-emphasis on academic qualifications in education.

    This chop-and-change approach to education has damaged the country’s ability to plan for the longer term. For example, the PAP had at one time focused on Information Technology and later switched to preparing students for life sciences. Its current emphasis is on “technology adoption” – whatever that means.

    Such short-sightedness contradicts PM Lee Hsien Loong’s boast of the PAP’s “far-sighted leadership who can anticipate problems”. If the leadership is. indeed, far-sighted, how did we place emphasis on our universities being growth engines for our economy and become the Boston of the East only to realise now that we have over-emphasised academic qualifications?

    Serving local or foreign students?

    And while the PAP caps the number of Singaporean graduates, it subsidises foreign students under the Global Schoolhouse project.

    A majority of international students studying here are given Tuition Grants (totaling more than $200 million per year) as well as scholarships (some of which are not open to Singaporean students). It is reported that foreign students make up between 18 and 20 percent of the total undergraduate intake in Singapore.

    In addition, foreign students receiving the grants have to serve a bond upon graduation (which many, by the way, don’t fulfill). They further compete with local graduates for jobs, many of whom are as it is having a hard time finding employment.

    The discrimination is made even more unpalatable when one considers Singaporean parents spending an average of $21,000 a year on their child’s university education. This is more than twice the global average, with over half of the households going into debt because of it. These parents even prioritise funding their children’s education over paying their bills or saving for retirement.

    And the PAP is limiting the number of local graduates while funding foreign ones? Mr Ong Ye Kung must explain whom exactly his latest policy is serving.

    Read SDP’s alternative education policy: Educating For Creativity And Equality: An Agenda For Transformation.

     

    Source: http://yoursdp.org

  • MOM: Unemployment Rate Up For Citizens And PRs

    MOM: Unemployment Rate Up For Citizens And PRs

    While layoffs dipped in the first quarter of this year, the overall unemployment rate continued to edge up, preliminary estimates released on Friday (April 28) by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) showed.

    Pointing to a “mixed” picture, the MOM report also showed that the total number of people in employment shrank.

    Seasonally adjusted, the overall unemployment rate — which covers citizens and permanent residents as well as foreigners living in households here — crept up from 2.2 per cent to 2.3 per cent between the end of the fourth quarter of 2016 and the first quarter.

    The unemployment rate for citizens and permanent residents, however, stayed unchanged over the same period (3.2 per cent), as did the citizen unemployment rate (3.5 per cent). An estimated 74,400 residents were estimated to be jobless at the end of the first quarter.

    Meanwhile, the number of layoffs dipped slightly from 5,440 to 4,800 between the fourth quarter of 2016 and the first quarter, with redundancies continuing its climb in the construction and services sectors.

    The services sector accounted for more than six in 10 redundancies (63 per cent). For the whole of last year, the number of job redundancies stood at 19,170, the highest since the 2009 global financial crisis.

    Total employment, meanwhile, contracted by 8,500, after it grew by 2,300 in the fourth quarter of last year, owing mainly to a dip in the number of work-permit holders in the construction and manufacturing sectors.

    For instance, the number of people employed in construction dipped by 12,900, the third straight quarterly fall.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

     

     

     

     

  • MOM: Retrenchment In Singapore At 7-Year High Since 2009 Financial Crisis

    MOM: Retrenchment In Singapore At 7-Year High Since 2009 Financial Crisis

    The number of workers laid off in Singapore hit a seven-year high in the first nine months of 2016 – the highest since the global financial crisis in 2009, figures released on Tuesday (Dec 13) by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) showed.

    A total of 13,730 workers were retrenched in the first nine months of this year, an increase from the 10,220 retrenched during the same period last year and the highest since the first nine months of 2009 when 21,210 workers were laid off, according to the ministry’s quarterly labour market report.

    During the third quarter, 4,220 workers were retrenched, down from the 4,800 laid off in the previous quarter but higher than the 3,460 retrenched in the same quarter last year.

    Professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) were more likely to be made redundant, the MOM report said. These workers formed the majority (73 per cent) of Singapore residents laid off during the quarter, and those with tertiary qualifications also formed the bulk of resident layoffs.

    The overall unemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.1 per cent. Among Singaporeans, the unemployment rate was 3 per cent in September, down from 3.1 per cent in June, and among residents, it was 2.9 per cent, down from 3 per cent.

    However, more job seekers were taking a longer time to find work, with the resident long-term unemployment rate rising to 0.8 per cent in September, up from 0.6 per cent a year ago and the highest September rate since 2009.

    Total employment shrank by 2,700, the first decline in more than a year, MOM findings showed. The decline was primarily due to contractions in the manufacturing and construction industries, affecting mainly work permit holders. Over the first nine months, total employment grew by 14,500, but it was the lowest such growth since 2009.

    “The contraction in total employment, heightened redundancy levels and decline in job vacancies to unemployed ratio reflect the current subdued global economic conditions and ongoing economic restructuring,” the ministry said.

    It added that tripartite partners will continue to help affected workers look for new jobs.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • 29 Year Old SMU Accountancy Graduate Jobless For 2 Years, Losing Hope

    29 Year Old SMU Accountancy Graduate Jobless For 2 Years, Losing Hope

    By: Ivan

    I am a graduate of SMU, and have trouble finding a job for 2 years.

    I am wondering if there are any opportunities here because I have been looking on craigslist, indeed, jobsdb, regionUP, all for jobs but I suspect most of them are fake or just recruiters trying to collect resumes for the companies which are not even hiring.

    I have a Bachelor’s in Accountancy and Finance from SMU.

    At 29 years of age, I don’t see much opportunities in the PMET sector especially for males.

    I don’t know why. But I think employers generally prefer females in the accountancy sector because they will not shout out as loud as males, and are generally perceived as more meticulous than men.

    I am deeply worried that my 2 years of unemployment gap will affect my future career (if it even exists now).

    Right now, I am feeling that local government do not support unemployed workers, and just cover it up with the news saying that unemployment is low. Truth is many people are underemployed.

    I tried approaching friends and family, but none of them have opportunities for me. Instead they keep telling me supposedly helpful advice like “have you tried this… or that” etc.

    Almost implying that it’s my fault that I did not hang on to my previous job.

    Also, I don’t have much faith in the governmental national job bank. Seems to be touch and go in this pro-business government.

    Globally, I do sense restructuring trend affecting many young people like me, especially in Spain, Greece and other cities. In some cities like NY or London, people at my age are being paid peanuts or working for free as interns, just to get a foot into the door of corporations.

    In fact, one may argue that Singapore has real jobs but only as casino croupiers and waiters.

    That is not a career many want, yet they do it just to get by. This is highly unhealthy for the economy to keep ‘pushing down’ the burden to the young. Singaporeans are smart and good, why should they be ‘cheap’ and devalued by our own government?

    If businesses are so powerful already, why is the government not empowering the people to balance this?

    Why is the employment market ‘rosy’ in Singapore when there are so many people complaining on your website?

    I feel the government has failed us all. Especially my generation who graduated in the post-recession.

     

    Source: http://theindependent.sg