TO STAVE off retrenchments and help workers stay employable in the current downturn, the Government will give employers more money to send their workers for training.

Employers will get higher subsidies, up to 90 per cent of course fees, for workers who attend programmes at any Continuing Education and Training (CET) centre.

They will also receive more money to cover the salaries of workers they send for training.

The two-tiered 'absentee payroll', a form of salary subsidy, goes up from the current $4 and $4.50 an hour to $6 and $6.80 an hour, depending on the age and educational qualifications of the worker.

The current pool of 64,500 jobless Singaporeans is also not forgotten. For the first time, the low-skilled will be paid $4 for every hour that they are on course.

The higher-skilled can get up to $1,000 a month while on training.

These measures come under a new two-year training scheme, called Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience or Spur, which starts on Dec 1.

The cost: $600 million.

Half the amount will go to ramping up the number of training places, which will double from 110,000 to 220,000 by next year.

The rest will be paid out to employers, workers, and jobless Singaporeans on course.

Announcing the details yesterday, Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said: 'Not only can Spur help employers reduce manpower costs and save jobs, it will also help to upskill our labour force and strengthen our capabilities in preparation for the economic upturn.'

He did not want to commit to a number when asked how many jobs can be saved with Spur.

'The simple answer is, we try to save as many as we can,' he said.

'While we save jobs, we also want to upgrade them, give them skills that are relevant to the new growing industries, so that when the economy eventually recovers, these workers will be ready for the new jobs.'

Labour chief Lim Swee Say, who was part of the panel of four ministers announcing help schemes for businesses and workers, pointed out that if the measures could help just 1 per cent of the workforce of 1.8 million, that would mean 18,000.

'If our objective is to prevent a rapid rise in unemployment, for every 18,000 workers we're able to help - either save their job, or ...enable them to go back to work...we'll be able to reduce unemployment by 1 per cent,' he said.

Both Mr Gan and Mr Lim were tight-lipped about unemployment and retrenchment projections for next year.

'Right now any forecast...will be just pure speculation. Nobody can say with a sufficiently high level of confidence what's going to happen to the global economy,' said Mr Lim, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Office.

But he revealed that more unionised companies have approached the labour movement to discuss retrenchment and other options, such as shorter work weeks and pay cuts.

Analysts predict that unemployment could hit 4.5 per cent next year, up from the current 2.2 per cent.

That is higher than the 4 per cent experienced in 2003, when more than 90,000 people were without jobs.

Layoffs are likely to hover at 10,000 this year, but next year, analysts say, it could surpass the high of 30,000 in 1998. Then, as now, the Government had a host of measures, including expanding training schemes, to stem the tide of layoffs.

Yesterday, Mr Gan and Mr Lim called on employers not to cut jobs at the first sign of trouble.

'Companies should not think only of cutting cost in the short term but also how to retain the best workers whom they will find harder to recruit when the economy recovers,' said Mr Gan.

Employers yesterday welcomed the measures.

'This will help our SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) save costs and try not to cut jobs to tide over this difficult period,' said a spokesman for the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

sueann@sph.com.sg