Help for Mature Workers Transitioning to Another Industry and Tackling Unemployment after Removal of Jobs Support Scheme

23 Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Manpower what is being done to help mature workers transition from a badly-hit industry to another industry especially where their educational qualifications may not be as high as younger employees who have had more educational opportunities.

24 Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Manpower what is being done to tackle unemployment after the Jobs Support Scheme is removed for the aviation and tourism-related industries.

Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Christopher de Souza asked about support for mature workers to find jobs and make career transitions. Jobseekers aged 40 and above are well-represented among those placed into opportunities under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, comprising around 50% of job placements and 35% of traineeships and attachments, and training opportunities.

We have consistently provided more support to help mature workers make career transitions. In the Unity Budget, we introduced the SkillsFuture Mid-Career Support Package for locals in their 40s and 50s, to help them stay employable and enter new jobs or new roles. This provides enhanced support of up to 90% of the cost for employers to reskill mature new employees, as compared to generally up to 70% for other new employees.

The Government provided an additional $500 SkillsFuture Credit for those aged 40 to 60 in 2020 to empower them to refresh their skills and enhance their employability. We also built up a pool of volunteer Career Advisors to provide sector and occupation-specific career advice and outline career options.

Mature individuals have valuable skills and bring with them a wealth of work experience. However, some mature jobseekers may still face difficulties in finding permanent jobs in the current job market.

In September 2020, the Jobs Growth Incentive was launched to support firms in accelerating the hiring of their local workforce. To encourage employers to consider hiring more mature jobseekers, the Government will underwrite 50% of their salaries, up to the first $5,000, for 12 months. This is double the wage support for younger new local hires.

The Jobs Growth Incentive should be seen in conjunction with other measures in the overall package. For example, an employer that meets the eligibility criteria for the Jobs Growth Incentive and hires a mature local worker via a Professional Conversion Programme will not only receive the 50% JGI, but also additional salary support and course fee subsidies, as well as further salary support under the Jobs Support Scheme if they are eligible. This approach has the advantage of tilting more support towards jobseekers that are harder to be matched to available openings.

Mr de Souza asked about the Jobs Support Scheme for the aviation and tourism-related industries. The Government has put in substantial effort and committed close to $100 billion in support measures to help companies and workers deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our economic measures are estimated to have offset some of the rise in resident unemployment rate by about 1.7 percentage points this year. The Ministry of Finance extended the Jobs Support Scheme to cover wages up to March 2021 for sectors that continue to be impacted by COVID-19, such as the Aviation and Tourism sectors, and are reviewing if a further extension is needed.

The Ministry of Transport (MOT) and Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) have also provided targeted support to prepare our businesses and workers to emerge stronger. For the Aviation sector, MOT introduced the Enhanced Aviation Support Package to preserve core capabilities and to support our local carriers to regain air connectivity to the world. For the Tourism sector, MTI worked with industry stakeholders to pilot Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) events and formulate an Event Industry Resilience Roadmap to provide guidance on safe and gradual resumption of business events. The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) also launched a domestic tourism campaign and the SingapoRediscovers Vouchers to drive local tourism and stimulate sectoral activity. While the Aviation and Tourism sectors have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, its medium to long-term prospects remain positive.

However, unlike in a cyclical downturn, some jobs may not return in their previous forms. Therefore, in addition to the Jobs Support Scheme, we are supporting employers to make use of the downtime to redesign jobs and reskill their employees to take on new job roles. For example, Workforce Singapore (WSG) has rolled out the Job Redesign Reskilling Programme and the Digital Marketing Reskilling Programme to retrain and redeploy workers in hotel and tourism companies.

For affected workers who are looking to switch to new careers, we will help them to access jobs and skills opportunities. WSG has set up the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres in all HDB towns and deployed Careers Connect On-the-Go to bring career matching and coaching services closer to jobseekers. This is in addition to physical touchpoints such as WSG Careers Connect, NTUC-e2i's career centres and WSG-appointed Career Matching Providers, Ingeus and MAXIMUS. Jobseekers can also use WSG’s MyCareersFuture.gov.sg, to search for job opportunities that suit their skills and competencies. The Jobs Growth Incentive will enable firms that continue to do well in the current climate to bring forward their hiring plans. The Government will press on with our efforts to provide employment facilitation support to different groups of jobseekers in different industries, to help them emerge stronger for eventual economic recovery.