Transform and grow as workforce growth slows, says Labour Chief

Slower workforce growth and lower - but not too low - economic growth must be the way forward for Singapore, labour chief Lim Swee Say said yesterday.

In the National Trades Union Congress's (NTUC) annual Workplan Seminar on Thursday, the NTUC secretary-general did not focus on the labour movement's plans for the year ahead, but looked further into the future, towards 2020.

If workforce growth continues at an average rate of 5.7 per cent a year, as it has since 2004, Singapore will have 5 million workers by 2020.

This, said Mr Lim, was "obviously... not sustainable." Instead, Singapore must "transform and grow", moving to a lower workforce growth of less than 2 per cent a year.