Job seekers, both white-and blue-collar workers, can turn to career centres set up in the Housing Board heartland to access the full variety of vacancies that are available in Singapore.
There are 24 of these satellite career centres in towns such as Jurong West, Sengkang and Woodlands, and they come under the new SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package introduced in May to help Singaporeans find jobs amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
Most of the job matches made via this package have been for non-PMET (professional, managerial, executive and technician) positions, said Manpower Minister Josephine Teo in Parliament yesterday.
She was replying to Workers' Party MP Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC), who had asked whether unskilled job seekers can get help through other channels besides SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres. He had said such centres seemed to focus on placing PMETs.
But Mrs Teo said: "Our experience is that matching people to PMET jobs takes longer. It has actually been easier to match people in non-PMET roles."
She added: "Right now, the focus has to be on the companies making these opportunities available to job seekers, letting the job seekers know that they are interested to take in people as trainees or for mid-career attachments."
Besides these satellite career centres, workers hunting for a job can also turn to other "touch points" with a similarly comprehensive list of vacancies available at companies.
These touch points include Workforce Singapore's and National Trades Union Congress' Employment and Employability Institute's five permanent career centres.
The SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat in May when he unveiled the fourth Budget for Singapore to help overcome the upheavals of Covid-19. The package was aimed at creating job opportunities for workers hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic.
Mrs Teo told the House that her ministry is also working with trade associations and business chambers of commerce as well as the Singapore Business Federation to match people and jobs. The federation is maintaining the list of approved companies with vacancies.
She added that her ministry is following up closely with companies that have offered traineeships to understand their concerns on converting attachments to permanent jobs.
"A lot of companies are looking ahead and seeing that this is a good time to expose more job seekers to their industries or to the jobs that were previously less well sought after, she added, in her reply to Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon GRC) and Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang).
She noted that in deciding to fill a permanent position, companies will, among other things, look at whether the trainee has "exhibited good ability to gel with the team as well as to contribute to the organisation".
One way the Government is nudging employers to hire local workers is through the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI). Under the scheme, firms that hire more locals in the six months starting last month could get up to $15,000 for each worker aged below 40 and up to $30,000 for each worker aged 40 and older.
Besides this assurance of funding support for their new hires, companies also have to make an effort to keep their existing employees.
Mrs Teo said that payouts aimed at speeding up the hiring of local workers are reduced in proportion to the number of existing employees that left the company after the scheme started last month.
Companies must also raise the number of local employees in jobs that pay at least $1,400 in gross monthly wages, she added.
Correction note: This article has been edited for accuracy.
