Coronavirus: Singapore warns more jobs will be lost due to ‘sheer uncertainty’ in global economy

Senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam made the remarks after he chaired the first meeting of a council to create new job opportunities

‘We will have far fewer new job openings than jobs being lost – over the next year, and beyond that if we are unlucky,’ he said

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Migrant workers cross a street at Orchard Road in Singapore. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:01am, 4 Jun 2020Updated: 9:07am, 4 Jun 2020

One of Singapore’s top political leaders said the city state faces a “major and urgent challenge” in the next six months to a year, warning of more job losses ahead amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The comments from Tharman Shanmugaratnam came after he chaired the first meeting for a council that included business groups and government leaders to seek new job opportunities to cope with the slowdown. About 100,000 jobs, both permanent and temporary, and training opportunities could be created from that initiative, he said.

“But we have to be realistic,” the senior minister and coordinating minister for social policies said in a Facebook post. The “sheer uncertainty” in the global economy means “we will have far fewer new job openings than jobs being lost – over the next year, and beyond that if we are unlucky”, he said.

Senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Photo: Bloomberg

Singapore’s approach to the virus is set to become a defining issue in upcoming elections, with lockdown curbs set to drag on past most of Asia’s after its original, less restrictive approach was scuppered by a second wave of infections.