Jamus Lim: More youth appear to be increasingly disillusioned regarding good job prospects in SG

SINGAPORE: In a Facebook post last week, Workers’ Party (WP) Member of Parliament Jamus Lim (Sengkang) tackled two related issues that he said Anchorvale residents had brought up with him—the difficulties the youth today face regarding employment and Singapore’s “ultracompetitive” education system.

The MP, who is an Associate Professor of Economics at ESSEC Business School, noted how the youth today “appeared to be increasingly disillusioned, because they saw little future in terms of good jobs. This untoward outcome is made worse by how many worked hard in our ultracompetitive education system, but now feel betrayed by their absence of career prospects.”

He added in his Aug 13 post that because of this situation, young people feel that moving overseas is the only way for them to get a good start in life.

Assoc Prof Lim also wrote that as of last year, Singapore’s youth unemployment rate was 4.1 per cent, and noted that this is more than twice the 2.0 per cent for the city-state as a whole, although he acknowledged that the figures are consistent with data in other advanced economies.

“When we get down to brass tacks, what such disenchanted youth means is that we may be inadvertently undermining our workforce in the years ahead. If our youth are discouraged from advancing themselves at this early stage of their lives, we may end up with cohorts of young people who do not put in the necessary effort to make something of themselves, because—well, what’s the point?” he asked.

Assoc Prof Lim added that such a situation could lead some young people to choose “cash flow-rich jobs, like private hire driving or food delivery services,” as they start out their working lives. Acknowledging that these types of jobs may initially have higher take-home pay or be useful as temporary employment during lean times, “their upside is almost certainly limited.”

He wrote that a resident shared their concern about this trend among the young, and said he shared these concerns in that these types of jobs are “effectively a form of underemployment” for young people.

“If these issues are indeed symptomatic of a deeper problem—of a broken pipeline from our education system into the workforce—then we have cause to worry. I’m not sure if this is yet the case, at least based on the aggregate statistics. But it’s certainly worth monitoring and looking into more, because after all, our youth are our future,” he wrote, adding that the two new NCMPs from the WP, Andre Low and Eileen Chong, are currently seeking feedback from young people regarding their employment concerns. He encouraged the youth to share their experiences with Mr Low and Ms Chong. /TISG

Read also: WP MP Louis Chua highlights increasing trend of companies hiring interns instead of fresh graduates