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
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.
The senior minister also cautioned against a situation in countries where a jobless rate of 10 per cent or more becomes a new normal for both the government and people.
“No amount of unemployment benefits can compensate for not having a job, and for the social stagnation and loss of optimism about the future that comes when a large segment of the population feels redundant and out of sorts,” he said. “We must never get there.”