LEE VOWS TO TACKLE RISING UNEMPLOYMENT

Govt will help businesses create new jobs and retrain workers

SINGAPORE is helping those who have lost their jobs find new ones, particularly for industries which are not doing well, such as the oil sector.

With oil prices falling sharply, and an overcapacity leading to no new orders for drilling rigs in the past two years, the offshore and marine industry has lost about 30,000 jobs since its last peak.

Last year, about 1,000 workers in the industry lost their jobs and “another few hundreds” are expected to do so this year.

Lee said the unions had been helping the affected workers find new jobs in other sectors that needed similar skills, such as the transport and aviation industries.

Retrenched engineers from offshore and marine industries can find new jobs there, with some retraining, for example.

Lee reiterated that workers needed to constantly upgrade, like what employees in other countries were doing. Today

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says in order for Singapore to continue to prosper, it boils down to three things — jobs, jobs, jobs.

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