SINGAPORE: Employers facing labour shortage should look to hire workers who held short-term COVID-19 roles, said Manpower Minister Tan See Leng on Monday (May 9).
This includes those who were employed as safe distancing ambassadors (SDAs) and vaccination centre workers.
Speaking in Parliament about how companies can adapt to the manpower crunch amid the recovering economy, Dr Tan noted that resident employment grew by 71,300 in 2021.
The resident unemployment rate has also recovered to pre-COVID levels.
“I am encouraged to see that many businesses have been able to build up their local workforce to meet their manpower needs,” he said, adding that there continues to be opportunities to hire more local workers.
OPPORTUNITIES TO HIRE LOCAL WORKERS
As of April this year, around 6,400 workers were employed in short-term COVID-19 roles by the public sector, Government-funded institutions or private sector medical service providers, said Dr Tan.
Around 1,200 of these workers will be “redeployed into longer-term roles”, but the other 5,200 will be “looking for new jobs when their contracts end over the coming months”.
As such, Workforce Singapore (WSG) and NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) will provide “employment facilitation”. Employers who are keen to consider these workers should reach out to both organisations.
“Many of these workers came from the F&B (food and beverage) and retail sectors, and would thus possess the relevant skillsets as well as experience,” said Dr Tan.
Additionally, employers can consider hiring trainees who have gone through various attachment and training programmes under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, added Dr Tan.
“There are 9,800 trainees who are still undergoing their programmes as at end February 2022, and they too will be looking for jobs in the near future.”
Dr Tan chairs the Jobs Taskforce, which is working with sector agencies to place these trainees in “suitable roles” that make use of the “industry-relevant skills and experience gained” through the programmes.
Finally, employers can consider tapping on a “larger pool of local manpower” by providing flexible work arrangements, including “flexi-time, flexi-place and part-time work”, said Dr Tan.
For instance, the number of local part-time workers in F&B services remained “stable” at around 35,000 on average over the last five years, of which around 15 per cent were students.
“Part-time work can benefit both employers who need the manpower, and workers who will not only earn an income, but can also gain work experience for the future.”