Lim Tean backs blogger/activist's query: How many Singaporeans hold these jobs?

Singapore — Peoples Voice party leader Lim Tean has supported blogger and activist Leong Sze Hian’s call for transparency to provide a breakdown of how many of the disclosed 170,000 jobs in the financial sector are held by Singaporeans.

On Thursday (Aug 13), Mr Leong quoted a businesstimes.sg report noting that 22,000 net jobs were created in the financial sector between 2015 and 2019. Of these, three out of four jobs went to locals, according to Ms Jacqueline Loh, a Deputy Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

The statement released the previous day by MAS cited that at least 75 per cent of the jobs created were “bagged by Singapore citizens and permanent residents”. In total, the financial sector of the country accounted for 13.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product last year and employed more than 170,000 workers.

Ms Loh also mentioned that retrenchments in the sector had been modest for the first quarter of 2020, citing data provided by the Ministry of Manpower. The findings were similar to the average quarterly retrenchments in 2019, said MOM. “As the sector has grown and strengthened its competitiveness as a global financial centre in Asia, it has created good jobs for locals,” said Ms Loh.

In response to the numbers, Mr Leong asked: “What is the breakdown of this total of 170,000 into locals (Singaporeans and Permanent Residents) and foreigners?”

Mr Lim shared the post and addressed it to Manpower Minister Josephine Teo, asking her to respond to the queries. “We want to know how many of these 170,000 jobs in the financial sector are being done by Singapore citizens? We are interested to develop Singaporean talent and not foreign talent!” he said.

Those commenting on the queries said that, for the answers, one had only to head to the Marina Bay Financial Centre and the Changi Business Park.