76,000 find places under SGUnited jobs initiative

Nearly 76,000 people have found placements under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, introduced last May to provide job opportunities, traineeships, and skills training for Singaporeans.

Opportunities remain for those seeking work or skills training, with nearly 130,000 jobs or skills places available as at the end of last year, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said in a report released yesterday.

The report gave an interim assessment of measures rolled out over last year's five Budgets to keep businesses afloat and workers in jobs. It looked at the impact of government support on firms, workers and households, as well as the economy as a whole.

MOF noted that 59,400 people had secured jobs through the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. This represents nearly 80 per cent of people who found placements through the scheme, and surpassed the original target of 40,000.

Nearly 5,400 fresh graduates also secured traineeships under the SGUnited Traineeships scheme, while more than 3,600 mid-career individuals were placed in company-hosted training and attachments under the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme.

Both these schemes, which are part of the package, aim to boost the employability of those unable to find permanent jobs by helping them gain industry experience and build up their professional networks.

Also, more than 7,200 mid-career job seekers have been enrolled in SGUnited Skills cour-ses, MOF said.

The five sectors that took in the largest number of people overall - ranging from jobs to training stints - were information and communications, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services and food services.

Three in four were job openings, most of which were of a long-term nature, MOF said. The top three sectors in which jobs are available are information and communications, manufacturing, and professional services.

There were also more than 25,400 opportunities available under the SGUnited Traineeships and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways schemes, and over 6,700 training opportunities.

Separately, the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI), which encourages companies to bring forward hiring through wage subsidies, led to more than 110,000 local job seekers hired by 26,000 firms.

MOF noted that food services, wholesale trade, professional services, retail and construction sectors were the top five hirers.

Of the roughly 14,000 employers who qualified for JGI payouts last September - the first month of the scheme's operation - eight in 10 maintained or expanded their local hiring in the following month. In October, more than 11,000 new employers became eligible for the scheme.

The majority of employers hired one or two local workers, although 20 per cent hired five or more. About half the new hires were aged 40 and above.

MOF said these schemes under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package are meant to ameliorate the weak labour market situation. Although the annual average resident unemployment rate rose by 1 percentage point to 4.1 per cent last year, it has remained below previous recessionary peaks.