A team from North East CDC is scouring neighbourhood shops and malls in Tampines and Pasir Ris for jobs closer to home. It has netted about 400 since December, mainly jobs such as retail assistants and food and beverage crew.
Many also lacked the skills needed to take up the jobs that are still on offer in the economy.
A top concern for the mayors of the island's five CDCs is how to help workers overcome the mismatch between their skills and those in demand by employers.
North West District Mayor Teo Ho Pin said that for every 10 job seekers, the CDCs are able to help six to seven find jobs fairly quickly.
The rest need a longer period of career guidance and help to adjust their expectations before they are ready to start job hunting.
'This time round, we don't know which segment of the workforce will be retrenched and whether their skills will be able to match the (needs of) hiring industries,' said Dr Teo, noting that almost all sectors are seeing layoffs.
'This is the structural unemployment that we are concerned about.'
He expects the number of those seeking help with jobs from the CDCs to grow as layoffs increase.
Their ranks have swelled already, from 1,985 in October to 2,455 in November, 2,580 in December and 2,954 last month. Last month's figure was a 50 per cent increase compared to the number in October last year.
Read the full story in today's edition of The Straits Times.
