UNEMPLOYMENT

Mr Ng Kah Ting asked the Minister for Labour (a) what is the total number of unemployed persons registered with the Labour Department as at 30th November, 1966; (b) since 1st January how many persons were successful in gaining employment through the assistance of the Employment Exchange of the Labour Department; and (c) what measures he will take to reduce the number of unemployed persons in the Republic.

Mr Barker: Mr Speaker, Sir, the total number of persons registered with the Employment Exchange for employment assistance as at 30th November, 1966, was 69,556. The number of persons who have been placed in employment by the Employment Exchange since the 1st January, 1966, to the 30th November, 1966, was 2,318. It must be emphasised that the Employment Exchange is not the only labour market in Singapore, as workers are also recruited directly by employers.

The Government is fully conscious of the need to find jobs for its unemployed citizens. It has, in fact, already taken a number of measures to create jobs. Under the industrialisation programme, 10,500 new jobs have already been created in the industrial sector up to the end of last year. We expect that 10,000 to about 12,000 new jobs will be created every year from 1967 onwards with the progress of industrialisation. The Regulation of Employment Act was passed to safeguard employment opportunities of Singapore citizens.

The Ministry of Labour is now considering the introduction of a training scheme in the hotel and catering industry for training persons as waiters, waitresses and chamber-maids, as there will be an increased demand for these categories of employees as hotel expansion to cater for the tourist industry is expected in the near future. The scheme is expected to come into operation early next year.

We also have a scheme to expand the dockyard in the Port Authority and we are at the moment inviting foreign participation in our dockyard, the main object being to get foreign know-how on dockyard expansion so that our dockyard can repair ships much more than can be done at present. If the dockyard is expanded, we expect that a few more thousand jobs will be created for those unemployed in Singapore.

Mr Ng Kah Ting: Mr Speaker, Sir, just now the Acting Minister for Labour has mentioned only two or three measures that the Government will be taking to provide more job opportunities for our unemployed citizens. I would like to find out whether there are other measures to be taken, so that the number of unemployed could be reduced to a greater extent rather than introduce only some aspects of it, thereby knocking off, say, 30,000, 50,000 or 60,000 of the total unemployed.

Mr Barker: Mr Speaker, Sir, the main measures by which we hope to reduce unemployment are those which I have mentioned. I can think of no other measures at the moment. But the hon. Member should be well aware that in Singapore we have three big problems. One is Education, the other Housing, and the third Unemployment. I think we can say without boasting that we have conquered the first two problems, Education and Housing. We are now tackling the third problem and we hope that in a few years we might be able to reduce the number of our unemployed.