NATIONAL SURVEY ON LABOUR SHORTAGE

Mr Tay Beng Chuan asked the Minister for Manpower whether his Ministry will conduct a national survey among employers to ascertain the extent of labour shortage in various sectors, and review the foreign labour policy to ensure an even and adequate supply of foreign labour to sustain the traditional and new businesses of our local enterprises in line with the Government's current efforts to create a pro-enterprise environment.

Encik Othman Bin Haron Eusofe (for the Minister for Manpower): The Ministry of Manpower conducts quarterly and annual surveys to obtain information on job vacancies by occupation and industry. The survey results are published in the Singapore Yearbook of Manpower Statistics, the Quarterly Labour Market Report, as well as in ad hoc reports. MOM also conducts the Manpower and Skills Needs Survey on a bi-annual basis to assess the employment outlook and skills needs of various industries for the next two years. In addition, our officers conduct regular company visits and engage in frequent exchanges with companies and unions to get first hand information on manpower issues. We also monitor and actively seek feedback from companies and workers to identify emerging problems. All these channels, from official surveys, links with economic agencies and interactions with companies, have enabled MOM to identify short and medium term manpower needs in various industries. These findings and projections on manpower needs are presented to the National Manpower Council. The Council, which meets twice a year, sets directions on the appropriate strategies to meet both the short and long term manpower needs.

To meet emerging manpower needs, various strategies encompassing manpower development, manpower augmentation and industry re-engineering will be needed. This includes welcoming and facilitating skilled foreigners coming here to work. For such skilled global talents coming here on Employment Passes, we do not have any cap or sectoral limitation. In the case of semi-skilled or unskilled foreign workers, we will have to take a more balanced approach. We already have more than 450,000 low-skilled foreign workers in Singapore. Unlimited inflow of low-skilled foreign workers is not sustainable and may undermine economic restructuring. Employers with easy access to low cost foreign workers may lose the incentive to invest in labour-saving technology, participate in workforce development, or re-engineer their work processes to address their manpower needs. There are also serious social and political costs in admitting too many foreign workers.

We have therefore adopted a more holistic approach to address industries' skilled and unskilled manpower needs. In response to the shortage of IT workers, for example, we launched the Strategic Manpower Conversion Programme (Info-comm) to encourage the conversion of local non-IT workers to take up IT jobs. This complements the liberal admission of foreign talents in this area. The Skills Redevelopment Programme has been extended to cover training of cleaning workers, health assistants and nurses, and other sectors facing labour shortage. This will help to re-deploy displaced workers, thus easing structural unemployment.

Sir, despite these measures, there will still be gaps in manpower demand and supply where the local workforce is not able to fill. Consequently, we will need to augment the workforce with foreign manpower. We will review the foreign manpower policy to ensure that they remain relevant while taking into consideration the social and economic costs associated with the admission of too many foreign workers. But foreign worker policies must be seen as part of the total solution to industries' manpower challenges and tailored accordingly. We will continue to monitor the employment situation closely and assist both large and small companies in their manpower needs.

Mr Tay Beng Chuan: Sir, there could be excess foreign workers in certain sectors of our industries, such as the construction sector. Can the Ministry of Manpower not allow some of these excess foreign workers to be transferred to other sectors, such as the service and manufacturing sectors, to meet the shortages so that these foreign workers can also be put to better use which will benefit our economy?

Encik Othman Bin Haron Eusofe: Sir, each company, each sector, will have to justify its needs for foreign workers separately. Although there may be excess in one sector, if the other sectors or companies do not justify their needs, then we are not able to provide them with additional workers. And, as I mentioned in my reply, we have to look at the total picture. We have to ensure that the needs of the industries are satisfied but, at the same time, we also have social and political costs that we need to take into consideration. So it has to be a total approach. Each sector, each company, must be able to justify its needs, and, if they can justify their needs, then we will be able to consider them.

Mr Chiam See Tong (Potong Pasir): Sir, is this number of 450,000 low-skilled foreign workers in Singapore too high already? There is talk of excess in the building trade. What I am saying is that there is a danger of these low-skilled foreign workers taking the jobs of Singaporean workers.

Encik Othman Bin Haron Eusofe: Sir, in fact, we are trying to get more skilled workers as against unskilled workers coming into Singapore. We have to have a balance. And we want companies to look at their processes and look into ways where they can cut their manpower needs by taking in more mechanisation processes. I think this has to be taken as a whole. Obviously, we cannot afford to have a large number of unskilled foreign workers, because there are social and political costs. So, while we want to welcome foreign workers, we want to welcome skilled workers to Singapore rather than unskilled workers. 450,000 is definitely a large figure and we should try our best to moderate the demand for unskilled workers. But we will obviously try and help those who need skilled workers to get their needs.

Mr Low Thia Khiang: May I ask the Minister of State, firstly, what criteria does the Ministry of Manpower use to assess the need of a specific sector for foreign workers and, secondly, does it take into account in its assessment what the potential growth or the current situation in the sector is, in order to decide whether they should allow more or less foreign workers to be employed by the sector?

Encik Othman Bin Haron Eusofe: Mr Speaker, Sir, in fact, we have various sectoral limitations for unskilled workers. For the manufacturing sector, for companies facing greater foreign competition, we allow them even up to 50% foreign workers and, for the construction sector, although there is not a need now, we actually allow up to five foreign workers for one local worker. So we have got this way to see what are their worker requirements. Even for the service sector, we do allow 30% of the total workforce to come from traditional sources. Though we do not allow non-traditional source workers to come into the service sector, we allow some exceptions.

So the answer is, briefly, we have ways to find out how to allocate the workers, and this depends on the needs of the industry. Obviously, in an area where there is strong competition, like manufacturing, we are pretty liberal, allowing up to 50% in some cases.