Linking Private and Public Sectors' Job Databases

Mr Teo Siong Seng asked the Acting Minister for Manpower under the coming Fair Consideration Framework, whether the Ministry will link WDA's jobs bank with other established job banks for better efficiency and cost effectiveness.

The Acting Minister for Manpower (Mr Tan Chuan-Jin): Mdm Speaker, under the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF), which takes effect from 1 August 2014, companies making new applications for Employment Passes (EPs) must advertise the job vacancy on a new jobs bank administered by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA). Even as we stay open to businesses and continue to complement our local workforce with foreign manpower, the framework will encourage businesses to improve their HR practices in considering Singaporeans more deliberately.

In addition to playing an important role in the FCF, the new jobs bank will facilitate better job matching opportunities between local job seekers and employers. This is particularly important when we do have a very tight labour market. The jobs bank aims to provide local job seekers with an avenue to access a more comprehensive list of job vacancies and seeks to provide employers with better visibility of their job vacancies to a larger pool of candidates. All employers are welcome to post on the jobs bank − in fact, we encourage them to do so − and we seek to develop the jobs bank to become a useful resource to both employers and local job seekers, and I think, importantly, for agencies, because it is a good way to mine data for us to better understand how the economy and workforce are evolving.

We are more than open to consider how we can collaborate with private jobs portals to achieve this. They are concerned. We will be quite happy to work with them. We will consult with them in the months ahead to explore possible areas of collaboration that can improve the overall labour market efficiency and provide as much visibility of job opportunities to job-seekers as possible. So, now, it is how to synergise it across the different job portals so that you can reinforce this as an overall effort.

Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): Thank you, Mdm Speaker. I would just like to come back to the FCF and would like to ask the Minister with regard to Singaporeans who are outside the PME framework —

Mdm Speaker: Mr Singh, just a clarification. Are you going back to the previous questions?

Mr Pritam Singh: That is correct. I raised my hand four times, and I wish to ask questions.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Singh, you cannot do that. We are now at Question No 8. Can you please direct your supplementary question to Question No 8?

Mr Pritam Singh: Madam, I just request your permission because it is an important policy affecting Singaporeans, and I would be very obliged if I could just follow up with a question on the earlier four questions that were asked.

Mdm Speaker: Would you follow up under Parliamentary Question (PQ) 8, please?

Mr Pritam Singh: Yes, I will follow up under PQ 8, but it does not relate to the jobs bank. It should relate to the FCF framework as a whole, and jobs bank just being part of it.

Mdm Speaker: We have already passed the PQs.

Mr Pritam Singh: Noted, Mdm Speaker.

Mdm Speaker: Thank you. Mr Patrick Tay.

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Nee Soon): On behalf of NTUC and the Labour Movement, I thank the Acting Minister for Manpower for rolling out the Fair Consideration Framework as well as the National Jobs Bank. If I may ask the Acting Minister with respect to this national jobs bank, whether the jobs that are published in that 14-day period, are they for Singaporean PMEs only to apply, to access, or is it a transparent open one for anyone?

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin: Mdm Speaker, we are in the process of working out the details of the jobs bank, its look and form and how it would operate. What I would say is that the job portal would be open for visibility for the rest of the people. However, we do envisage that in terms of direct application online, it will be only made available to locals.