預算辯論 · 2025-03-06 · 屆國會 14
勞動力市場復甦與保障措施
議員質詢疫情後就業恢復、通脹壓力及弱勢群體保障。人力部部長回應新加坡失業率降至2.8%，通過技能培訓、漸進式工資模式及退休保障等多項措施支援不同年齡和弱勢群體就業，強調收入增長超過通脹，整體勞動力市場穩健。核心爭議聚焦於如何持續提升低收入者福利及應對全球經濟不確定性。
關鍵要點
- • 疫情後就業恢復
- • 低收入者工資提升
- • 弱勢群體保障加強
推動技能培訓與收入保障
強化就業支援與退休保障
“We helped workers and businesses to emerge stronger.”
參與人員 (5)
- Mariam Jaafar
- Melvin Yong Yik Chye
- Minister for Manpower
- Xie Yao Quan
- Yeo Wan Ling
完整譯文（中文）
Hansard 原始記錄 · 2026-05-02
[(程式文本) 辯論繼續。(程式文本)]
下午6時36分
人力部長（陳時亮博士）：主席先生，我感謝政府議會委員會（GPC）議員和發言的議員們，他們為我們的工人和僱主發聲。自新冠疫情以來已經五年了。幸運的是，我們恢復得相當快。
疫情期間，本地居民失業率峰值達到4.8%。人力部當時的首要任務是保護生計。通過“新加坡團結就業與技能計劃”，我們協助了超過20萬名求職者。現在，本地居民失業率為2.8%，在經濟合作與發展組織（OECD）國家中屬於最低水平之一。
在戰爭和供應鏈中斷的背景下，包括新加坡在內的大多數國家近年來都在應對全球通脹。對許多新加坡人來說，生活成本上升的壓力是真實存在的。我們通過針對家庭的定向支援和收入增長來緩解這一壓力，收入增長不僅跟上了通脹，甚至超過了通脹。
過去五年，本地居民的中位數實際月收入增長了3.6%。對低薪工人來說，這一增長更高，達到5.9%。這意味著儘管物價上漲，我們的工資漲幅更大。我們表現優於其他發達經濟體，如英國、美國和日本，那些國家的實際工資停滯或下降。
除了恢復之外，我們還幫助工人和企業變得更強大。
首先，我們支援不同職業階段的新加坡人。
對於20至40歲的專業人士，我們幫助他們提升職業發展。過去五年，我們的職業轉換計劃幫助了3.7萬名工人重新技能培訓，進入增長崗位。對於50歲及以上的成熟工人，我們幫助他們保持有意義的就業。兼職再就業補助幫助了6500多家僱主為5萬名成熟工人提供工作機會。
第二，我們加強了對弱勢群體的保護，幫助新加坡人儲蓄退休金。
對於非自願失業者，我們推出了“技能未來求職者支援計劃”，在他們尋找工作期間提供臨時經濟支援。
對於低薪工人，我們提升了他們的工資。我們擴大了漸進式工資模型（PWM），提高了本地合格薪金（LQS），增強了工作補貼（Workfare Income Supplement），以提升他們的收入和公積金儲蓄。現在，約九成全職低薪工人覆蓋了PWM、LQS和漸進式工資標誌（PW Mark）。
對於平臺工人，我們加強了他們的住房和退休保障、工傷賠償和代表權。對於殘疾人士，過去五年他們的就業率從28%提升至34%。
我們加強了所有新加坡人的退休保障。2024年推出了90億新元的“前進計劃”，今年預計將在增強版銀髮支援計劃上花費超過8億新元，惠及29萬名長者。約74萬新加坡人將有資格參加增強版配對退休儲蓄計劃（MRSS）。我們想向所有新加坡人保證，只要他們持續工作並繳納公積金，就能滿足基本退休需求。我們也將提升那些無法工作或缺乏時間儲蓄的人士的保障。
第三，疫情是企業推動生產力和增強韌性的警鐘。因此，我們更新了工作準證框架以支援這一點。我們推出了面向全球人才的海外網路與專才準證（ONE Pass）和針對就業準證（EP）持有者的COMPASS計劃。我們在依賴工作準證持有者推動行業轉型方面保持紀律性。
我們支援企業轉型。沙拉爾·塔哈先生問這項工作有多成功。
自2019年以來，我們推出了17個就業轉型地圖。約1萬家公司通過職業轉換計劃（CCPs）等方案獲得支援，培訓和僱傭工人，重新設計崗位。2023年，我們還推出了人力資源行業轉型計劃，推動勞動力轉型。
最後，我們建設了更公平、更包容、更安全的工作場所。我們釋出了三方靈活工作安排請求指南，提升僱主能力，更好地吸引和留住人才。這項舉措有望釋放約24萬名女性和13萬名適齡長者這兩大群體的潛力，他們目前尚未進入勞動力市場。
我們通過《工作場所公平法案》打擊職場歧視。我們改善了外籍勞工的福祉和安全。推出了初級醫療計劃，提高了宿舍運營標準，改善了康樂中心的服務，2023年工作場所死亡率創歷史新低，為每10萬名工人中0.99人。
這些成就離不開我們三方夥伴——全國職工總會（NTUC）和新加坡全國僱主聯合會（SNEF）的強力支援。
但工作仍在繼續。面對重大地緣政治和經濟不確定性，我們預計2025年GDP增長將更為謹慎，約為1%至3%。長期來看，有兩大因素將使增長更難維持。
第一是人口結構挑戰。由於生育率低，本地勞動力預計將在下一個十年停止增長。人口也在老齡化。預計到2030年，每四名新加坡人中就有一名年齡在65歲及以上。
第二是全球競爭加劇。東南亞將受益於人口紅利，我們需要跟上東南亞其他地區的增長步伐。紐約、倫敦和迪拜等城市正在吸引生物技術和人工智慧等領域的頂尖公司和人才。
在這些挑戰中，我們如何持續擴大經濟蛋糕？如何繼續為新加坡人創造有意義的機會？
首先，我們必須繼續保持對世界的開放，以保持競爭力並支援社會需求。2014年，每位65歲及以上的長者由6名適齡居民支援。2024年，這一比例降至3.5。外籍勞工緩解了這一下降。包括他們在內，2024年的老年支援比從3.5上升至5.2。
但通過增加人數增長是有限的。唯一可持續的方式是通過生產力驅動的增長。
我們在生產力提升方面取得了良好進展。在產業轉型地圖（ITMs）的支援下，過去十年勞動生產率年均增長約2%。然而，即便如此，新加坡的生產力仍僅為前沿經濟體的40%至70%。
一個令人振奮的機會是，我們可以將經濟重塑為以生產力和創新驅動的經濟。全球秩序在數週內發生了巨大變化。新加坡可以作為穩定和開放的燈塔，吸引全球人才和企業。
正如副總理顏金勇今天在貿易與工業部部長工作總結演講中所述，我們將加強與世界的連通性；幫助本地企業打造新品牌和新業務；營造有利於先進製造、深科技和綠色經濟等領域增長的親企業環境。
下午6時45分
人才——他們的熱情、創造力和技能——是這段旅程的核心。人力部將打造一支適應性強、創新且多元化的勞動力，幫助新加坡在動盪的世界中繁榮。
今年我們有三大優先事項：（一）支援企業轉型；（二）賦能工人構建職業健康；（三）促進包容和安全的工作場所。
首先，我們將支援企業轉型。企業理解這一需求，但面臨高成本環境。部分人力成本上升是為了提升低薪工人，這是我國社會契約的優先事項。我們將緩解企業的短期壓力，同時推動和持續推動長期轉型。
第二，我們將賦能工人，在經濟轉型過程中幫助他們在不同人生階段構建職業健康。
第三，我們將促進公平、包容和安全的工作場所。
讓我先談談如何支援企業轉型。為了保持競爭力，公司需要與業務改進同步轉型勞動力。我們將撥出超過4億新元，推出新的企業勞動力轉型套餐。該套餐將回應葉漢榮先生、沙拉爾·塔哈先生、謝偉民先生和施珍女士提出的對企業勞動力轉型更全面和整合支援的呼聲，主要有三大特點。
第一，我們將推出新的技能未來勞動力發展補助。該補助將整合由職工發展局（WSG）和技能未來新加坡（SSG）管理的計劃，簡化申請流程。公司可通過一個申請渠道獲得涵蓋崗位重設計、能力建設和培訓等活動的全面勞動力發展支援。WSG將與主要專案合作伙伴協作，為公司提供合適且可持續的解決方案建議。
第二，我們將加強崗位重設計支援。目前，WSG為公司聘請預先批准的顧問進行崗位重設計提供最高50%、上限3萬新元的資金支援。在勞動力發展補助下，這一比例將提高至70%。我們還將審查並提高3萬新元的上限。
一些大型公司已開始識別可能受人工智慧影響的員工，並主動為他們提供新崗位的再培訓。但其他公司，尤其是中小企業，可能需要更多崗位重設計支援，以應對人工智慧等帶來的衝擊。我們將擴大崗位重設計費用的覆蓋範圍，不僅限於諮詢服務，還包括為直線經理和人力資源人員提供崗位重設計和變革管理技能培訓，幫助他們識別勞動力解決方案和人工智慧工具。詳情將稍後公佈。
第三，技能未來企業信用將在2026年重新設計，以更好支援勞動力轉型。我們收到反饋，報銷模式可更好解決企業現金流問題，並明確信用可用於哪些計劃。重新設計後，符合條件的企業將獲得新的1萬新元信用額度。類似電子錢包，企業可用信用抵扣相關勞動力轉型專案的自付費用。
全國職工總會的公司培訓委員會（CTC）補助在2024年得到加強，支援與業務轉型相關的培訓。接受度令人鼓舞。截至2024年12月，CTC補助支援了400多個轉型專案，惠及7000多名工人。
以BDO稅務諮詢的稅務顧問李瑞秋女士為例。她過去花費大量時間處理資料收集和檔案準備等手工任務。利用CTC補助，BDO稅務諮詢引入了集中資料平臺，配備更智慧、更快捷的工作流程，實現自動資料收集和驗證。因此，李女士能專注於為客戶提供個性化支援，提升業務成果。
正如總理在預算演講中宣佈的，我們將撥出約2億新元擴大該補助，並延長至2028年。
教育機構和僱主如何合作培養未來人才？他們今天可以共同開發定製化的勞動力培訓專案，滿足企業需求。我們還將擴大CTC補助，資助僱主主導的培訓，提供正式認證。CTC補助將通過課程費補貼和缺勤工資提供增強支援。
感謝鄭國福先生、葉漢榮先生和謝偉民先生提出改進人力資源實踐和標準的建議。人力資源在勞動力轉型中扮演重要角色，不僅是遵守就業法規，更是提升組織人力資本。我們將成立三方人力資本能力發展工作組，提高人力資源標準和專業人員能力，使其能戰略性地促進業務和勞動力成果。
現在談談我們的外籍勞動力。企業持續將人力資源限制視為主要挑戰。
同時，林占梅副教授提到對外籍人才需求存在根本懷疑。這種懷疑是自然的。當我們看到外國人時，會想“他們搶了本地人的工作”。但更難看到的是，沒有外國人，公司及其崗位可能根本不會在新加坡存在。
事實是，新加坡市場小且無自然資源。正如資政李光耀先生曾說：“如果我們不吸引、不歡迎、不讓人才在新加坡感到舒適，我們就不會成為全球城市，也不會有多大影響力。”
因此，很容易用簡單論調暗示這是零和遊戲，移除一名外國人就多一個本地工作崗位。梁文福先生表示支援開放經濟和社會，並要求提供事實以平息反移民情緒。讓我分享事實。
我注意到他受過計量經濟學訓練，是統計學家。但請不要低估政府經濟學家、學者和統計人員團隊的力量，他們多年來、數十年監測並理解趨勢，可能比你我更深入瞭解。
過去十年，EP和S準證持有者增加了3.8萬。同期，本地專業、管理、執行和技術人員（PMET）增加了38.2萬，是前者的十倍。新增本地PMET中有三分之一來自非PMET升級，30至50歲的居民佔多數。議員們，我們的技能提升計劃和對本地非PMET升級為PMET的投資已見成效。
在金融與保險服務、專業服務和資訊通訊技術（ICT）行業，EP和S準證持有者增加了1.8萬，本地PMET增加了17.2萬，同樣是十倍增長。截至2024年，這些行業每一名EP或S準證持有者對應3至6名本地PMET。即使只比較新加坡公民或本地出生的新加坡公民與EP和S準證持有者，情況也是如此。
居民資料大致反映公民資料，因為新加坡公民一直佔居民勞動力約84%。
人力部定期釋出新加坡公民就業結果統計和分析。過去十年，新加坡公民的勞動力參與率上升，居全球前列，領先日本、芬蘭和德國等城市。失業率保持穩定且低位，國際上新加坡失業率屬最低之一。
我們絕不應形成“只限新加坡人”的心態，因為這會剝奪我們吸引全球企業所需的人才。外資企業佔新加坡公司不到四分之一，但僱傭約三分之一居民工人，約60%高薪崗位由居民擔任。我們的本地企業也因服務跨國公司而受益，獲得全球曝光。全球企業和外國人繳納的稅款支援政府在教育、醫療和住房上的開支。
我們的人才準證框架經過精心管理，確保引進支援生產性行業併為本地人創造優質崗位的高素質外國人。Rachel Ong女士和Mohd Fahmi先生詢問了相關更新。
ONE Pass持續吸引創造機會的全球人才，2024年發放約3000張。
除了經濟貢獻，ONE Pass持有者還積極參與本地社群，指導本地領導和初創企業，志願服務社會組織，並與高等院校合作。
以迪士尼東南亞區首席財務官Savita Iyer女士為例。她曾在全球多地工作，是新加坡領導者網路獎學金計劃的導師，該計劃培養新加坡人擔任區域和全球領導角色。她的學員之一是EQT集團亞太區私人財富客戶關係負責人Yeo Sueann女士。Yeo女士感到有女性導師的支援，能將導師經驗應用於自己的領導之路。
在就業準證層面，我們調整了框架，確保EP持有者補充本地勞動力。EP合格薪金以本地PMET工資的上三分之一為基準，確保EP持有者素質高。
2025年1月1日起，最低合格薪金從5000新元提高至5600新元，今年不會再調整。林占梅副教授建議通過公積金託管平衡本地與外籍工人工資。我認為這無必要，因為設定合格薪金時已將公積金繳納計入本地工資基準。工資層面實際上相當公平。雖然EP持有者因不繳公積金而實際拿到的工資可能更高，但這不意味著本地人收入較低，因為他們的公積金繳納用於住房和退休需求。
議員Patrick Tay先生詢問了我們的就業準證（EP）框架如何激勵企業發展強大的本地核心。我們大約在一年半前實施了COMPASS。目前約有30%的EP持有人通過了COMPASS，初步結果顯示我們正朝著正確的方向前進。依賴單一國籍外國人或總體依賴外國人的企業必須多元化其勞動力，或者必須僱傭更多本地人以通過COMPASS。
自COMPASS實施以來，依賴單一國籍外國人較高的企業比例下降了7%，而總體依賴外國人較高的企業比例下降了15%。這些企業還為本地專業、管理、執行及技術人員（PMET）創造了4000個更多的就業崗位。
晚上7點
在S準證層面，我們將繼續提升勞動力質量，保障本地助理專業人員及技術人員（APT）的就業機會。我們已將S準證持有者的最低聘用成本基準定為本地APT工資的上三分之一。為緩解過渡，我們分三步逐步提高S準證的最低合格薪金。該措施於2022年宣佈，並分三步實施，分別在2022年、2023年和2025年。
鑑於企業面臨的成本壓力，我們已適度調整了漲幅。S準證最低合格薪金將從3150新元提高至3300新元。金融服務業的標準將從3650新元提高至3800新元。合格薪金將隨年齡增長而增加。這些調整將適用於2025年9月1日起的新S準證申請，以及2026年9月1日起到期的續簽申請。S準證徵費也將從2025年9月1日起統一為650新元。我們將根據經濟狀況持續審視S準證的合格薪金標準。
在工作準證層面，持證人數創歷史新高，比疫情前水平高出17%。依賴工作準證持有者較多的行業，如建築、餐飲服務和住宿業，過去十年生產力增長緩慢甚至負增長。您可能已讀到，2024年關閉了3000多家餐飲店，但新開業的店鋪超過4000家，工作準證持有者數量增長了4%。
正如Fahmi先生所強調，企業需要通過提升生產力和重新設計崗位來減少對工作準證持有者的依賴，優先僱傭本地人。鑑於此，商業競爭力行動聯盟（AfA）提出了有益建議，幫助企業僱傭更高技能的員工，注重質量而非數量。
Mark Lee先生詢問了允許跨行業調配外國工人的建議。這是一個複雜的問題——我們需要權衡潛在效率與規避工作準證管控風險之間的平衡。話雖如此，我們正在與行業夥伴共同研究此事，準備好後會公佈最新進展。
對於其他建議，我們將採納以完善工作準證框架。
首先，我們將取消工作準證持有者的最長僱傭期限限制。此前，僱傭期限被限制在14至26年，導致企業不得不放棄仍處於黃金工作年齡的經驗豐富員工。我們還將把工作準證持有者的最高僱傭年齡提高至與本地退休年齡（目前為63歲）一致。通過這些調整，僱主可以留住仍能貢獻的經驗豐富員工。
Jayakumar先生在KTC土木工程與建築公司工作了25年，最初擔任助理工頭，後晉升為工頭。憑藉豐富經驗，Jayakumar先生指導和培訓新員工，幫助建立強烈的安全文化，推廣最佳實踐。
KTC歡迎取消最長僱傭期限限制，這使得像Jayakumar先生這樣的經驗豐富員工能夠繼續為公司的生產力和專案交付做出貢獻。
其次，我們將根據行業需求，將非傳統來源國名單擴大至寮國、柬埔寨和不丹。這將幫助企業構建更具技能和韌性的勞動力隊伍。
第三，我們將擴大非傳統來源職業名單（NTS-OL），使服務業和製造業企業能夠在更多非PMET職業中僱傭來自非傳統來源國的技術工人，相關調整將與行業夥伴和工會協商。除此之外，我們已納入行動聯盟推薦的幾乎所有制造業操作工崗位，還將包括重型車輛司機和廚師。由於NTS-OL工人的最低工資為2000新元，這不會削弱提升本地員工的努力。
最後，我們認識到企業在轉型過程中需要人力支援。戰略經濟優先領域人力配額計劃（M-SEP）為貢獻新加坡經濟重點領域的企業提供過渡性工作準證和S準證配額。我們將擴大合資格專案範圍，併為派遣本地員工參加海外歷練或領導力專案的企業新增通道，同時將支援期限從兩年延長至三年。
這些調整將助力我們邁向更高質量的工作準證勞動力。同時，我們也認識到某些關鍵崗位難以實現自動化或招募本地員工。我們一直提供有針對性的靈活措施，例如保潔服務。
內政部第二部長Josephine Teo分享了內政部如何在保持強大本地核心的同時，謹慎增加緊急醫療服務和輔助警察的外國招聘。
Hazel Poa女士建議將更多外國勞動力配額分配給實行包容性就業的企業。Mark Lee先生和Zhulkarnian Abdul Rahim先生此前也在議會提出類似建議。我們將認真研究該提議，考慮其與外勞政策促進企業轉型和鼓勵本地僱傭的核心目標之間可能存在的權衡。
我們正積極審視工作準證框架以推動轉型，同時根據勞動力變化靈活調整以支援不同需求。相關更新將適時公佈。
接下來談談賦能我們的工人。新加坡人擁有世界一流的教育和職業道德。隨著經濟轉型，我們有良好條件抓住新機遇。然而，僅靠正規教育是不夠的。經濟合作與發展組織（OECD）成人技能調查發現，新加坡人的識字能力在30多歲時就開始下降。我們必須加大力度推動終身學習。
在“前進新加坡”對話中，新加坡人表示期待新機會，但不確定如何實現。職業健康新加坡（Career Health SG）是我們賦能新加坡人在經濟變革中發展有意義且有韌性職業的承諾。
例如，正如我在貿易與工業部部長職務演講中提到的，隨著向綠色經濟轉型，我們通過“可持續發展專業人士能力提升計劃”（CCP for Sustainability Professionals）和“未來能源與化工行業能力提升計劃”（CCP for Future Energy and Chemical sector）積極為工人提供再培訓，幫助他們勝任新興或重新設計的綠色崗位。
僱主在支援員工方面也發揮重要作用。新加坡工商聯合會（SBF）調查顯示，60%的大型企業和不到一半的中小企業為員工提供培訓。我們理解這一點。我曾經經營過企業，生意好時沒時間培訓，生意差時沒錢培訓。
僱主可能也不確定如何引導員工的職業發展。因此，我們投資了一整套綜合舉措，支援新加坡人的職業健康。人力部高階國務部長Koh Poh Koon將詳細介紹人力部如何賦能新加坡人構建職業健康，並加強對僱主的支援。
Patrick Tay先生和Leong Mun Wai先生詢問了新加坡的就業不足問題。Leong先生多次強調，就業不足是一個嚴重問題，新加坡人越來越難找到符合其技能和志向的工作。
我想與大家分享——我理解新加坡人今天在快速變化的世界中感受到的焦慮和擔憂。正如Patrick Tay先生所說，經濟轉型加速，可能導致僱主需求與員工志向之間出現錯配。
Leong先生所說的就業不足主要指技能相關的就業不足，即個人認為其工作未充分發揮其技能。然而，目前尚無國際公認的測量方法。我之前提到，我們正與國際勞工組織（ILO）合作開發相關測量標準，但這一國際合作過程需要時間。我們目前能夠客觀測量的是時間相關的就業不足，即他提到的小時數指標。這是定義明確且國際認可的指標，指的是兼職且願意且能夠從事額外工作的人員。
與大家分享，也供Leong先生參考，新加坡居民的時間相關就業不足率較低且穩定，過去十年平均為3.1%，2024年更降至2.3%的低點。
這一比例低於許多其他發達經濟體，如英國和芬蘭。
部分工人因個人原因選擇從事與其資質不符的工作，如出於興趣、生活方式目標或照顧家庭的需要。我們尊重這些選擇，希望自願就業不足者能有多樣化的工作選擇，滿足其需求和志向。
最常見的例子，也是Leong先生用以證明就業不足的例子，是前PMET人員——他舉例一位銀行高階副總裁現為私人租車司機。但我們應謹慎對待個別案例並避免過度推斷。新加坡僅有1.1%的居民勞動力（約28000人）主要從事私人租車司機工作。人力部調查顯示，63%的司機是“基於偏好”從事該工作，他們表示喜歡該工作的靈活性和自由，而非因找不到固定工作。
類似地，Grab的調查顯示，超過70%的司機選擇該工作是因為“時間靈活”。
那麼自僱人士（SEP）呢？人力部最新調查顯示，94.1%的自僱人士以自營工作為主要生計，例如財務顧問、保險代理、房地產經紀、計程車司機、私人租車司機等，他們偏好這種工作安排。其中包括願意從事通常不要求學位工作的學位持有者，因為他們覺得當前工作有意義、符合需求，或提供所需的靈活性。
關於Leong先生提及的其他指標，情況也不像他描述的那樣嚴峻。與其他發達經濟體相比，我們居民的中位收入和勞動參與率均居高不下，失業率則較低。
過去十年，居民各收入百分位的收入均有所增長。居民收入位居世界前列，不同於許多發達國家工資停滯或下降的情況。我們的畢業生起薪中位數高於英國和澳大利亞等國，即使調整購買力平價後亦是如此。
晚上7點15分
過去十年，更多本地人獲得PMET職位，居民勞動力中PMET職位比例從54%升至64%。這與同期居民勞動力中擁有高等教育學歷者比例從51%升至略超60%相符。
如果就業不足普遍存在，PMET比例應遠低於高等教育學歷者比例。
放棄找工作的“失望勞工”比例也從2023年的0.4%降至2024年的0.3%。其中大多數為老年人，我們正幫助他們提升技能以獲得新工作機會。
我理解——我花很多時間講資料，但資料可能無法安撫那些感到焦慮或經歷生活困難、難以找到合適崗位、難以找到生活意義和匹配期望崗位的新加坡人。
讓我向每位新加坡同胞保證，處於職業旅程這一階段的你們並不孤單。讓我們幫助你們。我們有豐富的專案幫助你們緊跟就業市場，保持就業，增強信心，抓住良好工作機會。這就是職業健康新加坡的精神。
我們有一整套可用的幫助計劃。我列了一個詞彙表幫助自己記憶，至少有34項。我樂意在辯論結束時分享，希望所有新加坡同胞充分利用這些專案，拓寬職業視野。
同時，我們致力於確保公平競爭環境。我們將繼續推動公平就業實踐，並對歧視性招聘採取堅決行動。這也是我們一個半月前通過《職場公平立法法案》的原因。
對於遭遇挫折者，我們支援你們。
自今年4月起，技能未來求職者支援計劃為非自願失業者提供臨時經濟援助，幫助他們尋找工作。正如我所說，這只是過渡性支援計劃，疊加於你們已有的社會援助計劃之上。人力部高階國務部長Koh Poh Koon將介紹符合條件者如何獲得該計劃的補助。
對於有志成為企業領導者的新加坡人，海外歷練至關重要。通過“前進新加坡”行動，商業領導力發展行動聯盟（AfA-BLD）和商業競爭力行動聯盟不斷強調新加坡企業領導者需具備全球視野和經驗。正如“前進新加坡”報告所述，我們將加大力度幫助新加坡人在各自領域脫穎而出。
Sharael Taha先生和Edward Chia先生會高興得知，我們將在三方面加倍努力培養下一代新加坡全球領導者。
首先，正如總理在預算演講中宣佈的，我們將擴大新加坡專業人士的職業發展機會。目前，我們支援企業通過海外派遣和領導力里程碑專案培養新加坡人才。這些專案由企業新加坡、金融管理局（MAS）和資訊通訊媒體發展局等機構提供，涵蓋多個行業，支援早期職業人士和中層領導。
我們將把這些專案的年度總容量從400人增加到700多人。這將使我們能夠培養本土領導者，如標準 Chartered銀行新加坡、東盟及南亞財富與零售銀行業務主管Andrew Chia。在現任職務之前，MAS支援他作為國際派遣計劃（iPOST）的一部分，赴雅加達擔任標準 Chartered銀行印度尼西亞執行長。這段寶貴經歷為他目前負責新加坡及其他八個區域市場的業務奠定了基礎。
其次，我們將加強對新加坡人及其家庭的海外過渡支援。我們知道，海外遷移及回國對家庭尤其在住房和子女教育方面存在困難。我們將幫助緩解過渡期。擁有組屋的業主在最低居住期內因海外派遣可向建屋發展局（HDB）申請靈活安排，如延期最低居住期，前提是有明確合理的回國時間表。
教育部（MOE）有措施支援家庭的教育需求和偏好。通過“保證學校安置計劃”，MOE確保回國新加坡兒童在家附近有空缺的中小學獲得入學保障。尋求基於成績和選擇的中學入學者也可參加回國新加坡學生的學校安置活動。
新加坡領導者網路（SGLN）是2022年成立的領導力社群，旨在為新加坡人準備區域及全球領導角色，提供從頭到尾的支援，連線參與者與當地社群，並通過相關機構提供住房和教育指導。
第三，我們將強化領導力社群生態系統。這對建立專業網路和獲取職業資源至關重要。正如副總理Gan Kim Yong所述，我們將加強SGLN的海外過渡支援，擴大網路活動、導師機會及面向中高層新加坡管理者的旗艦SGLN獎學金專案。我們將盡快公佈更多細節，強烈鼓勵所有有志成為新加坡領導者者加入該網路。
我們還將促進SGLN與行業社群之間的跨部門網路交流，如新加坡金融領導者網路和新加坡數字領導力加速器。
隨著我們的人口老齡化，我們需要非常前瞻性地延長老年人的生產力壽命並加強退休保障。因此，我們將幫助我們的老年工人儘可能長時間保持生產力。今年，我們將啟動一項由三方領導的努力，與公民和企業共同開發支援成熟工人多階段職業發展的方案。
正如總理在預算演講中宣佈的那樣，我們將延長高階就業補貼，以繼續支援僱主僱用老年工人。我們將幫助老年人積累退休儲蓄，邁出下一步，於2026年提高老年工人的公積金繳費率。同時，我們也將延長僱主的公積金過渡補貼。
林淑儀女士建議修改公積金制度，包括增加會員在55歲時可提取的金額。我想她知道這將減少會員未來可能最需要時的每月養老金。現行的提款規則在滿足會員即時需求和確保終身充足退休收入之間取得了平衡。
房產所有者可以靈活地將其全額退休金儲蓄以物業和現金形式分配，以提取超過基本退休金儲蓄的退休賬戶資金。1958年及以後出生的會員，在65歲時也可以提取最多20%的退休賬戶儲蓄。
對於林淑儀女士提出的另一項建議，即要求配偶同意公積金提名，我之前已說明，我們目前的做法與遺囑處理方式一致。個人資產的分配是個人決定。要求配偶同意意味著會員將不再自由選擇其公積金儲蓄在去世後由誰繼承。我們將繼續審視公積金政策以確保其相關性。
過去兩年，我們在加強新加坡人退休保障方面取得了良好進展。我們一直在提高公積金月薪上限以跟上薪資增長。我之前提到，這一上限將從2026年1月1日起由7,400美元提高至8,000美元。
我們還推出了“前進計劃”，2024年12月有160萬新加坡人獲得了醫療儲蓄獎金，約80萬人獲得了退休儲蓄獎金。從今年起，符合條件的在職老年人將持續獲得年度“賺取與儲蓄獎金”，只要他們繼續工作。
這就是政府如何增強新加坡人的退休保障，同時我們也在研究如劉士豪先生提到的終身退休投資計劃等舉措。高階國務部長許寶琨將分享更多幫助老年人積累退休儲蓄並保持勞動力參與的舉措。
營造公平包容的工作場所同樣重要，使所有工人都能分享增長成果。我們將繼續提升低薪工人的待遇。為幫助他們提升技能以獲得更好工作，我們將加強工作獎勵技能支援。我們還將加強漸進式工資補貼計劃（PWCS），支援僱主提高工資。高階國務部長扎基·穆罕默德將分享更多。
我們希望營造包容性工作場所，使每個人都能貢獻力量，即使採用不同的工作安排。我們將加強職業轉換培訓計劃（CCPs），幫助中年新聘員工和彈性工作崗位員工提升技能。
對於殘疾人士，我們支援企業提供合理便利，包括僱用殘疾人士的僱主支援計劃和正在制定的三方諮詢。我們還將幫助他們積累足夠的退休儲蓄。
在預算演講中，總理宣佈擴大匹配退休儲蓄計劃，納入符合特定條件的殘疾新加坡人，無論年齡大小。我們也將繼續支援前罪犯的就業。國務部長顏曉芳將分享更多。
我們已將工作場所安全與健康水平提升至發達國家水平，但必須保持警惕。這是一項持續進行的工作。高階國務部長扎基將分享更多。
隨著經濟轉型加速，我們聽到關於工人保護的關切。我們將與三方夥伴共同審查《僱傭法》，確保在保護工人權益與保持企業靈活性之間取得恰當平衡。
感謝鄭國輝先生和黃文輝先生對《僱傭法》的建議，我們將在審查中考慮，並預計今年晚些時候分享更多。
施淑儀女士詢問公司併購時對員工的支援。這些公司必須根據客觀且一致的標準，公平地規劃裁員和合同終止，遵循《管理過剩人力和負責任裁員三方諮詢》。為指導僱主提升能力，我們通過人力資源專業人員學院和新加坡僱主聯合會建立了支援生態系統。
李顯龍先生建議加強職業轉換培訓計劃，幫助併購後重新部署的員工。正如我在貿易與工業部部長工作報告中所說，職業轉換培訓計劃已為此類員工，尤其是可能在業務轉型如併購中需要更多幫助的成熟工人，提供了實質支援。儘管如此，我們將進一步研究。
感謝施女士關於人工智慧公平使用的觀點。如今，所有僱主必須遵守《三方公平就業實踐指引》，無論是否在僱傭決策中使用人工智慧。三方公平與進步就業實踐聯盟（TAFEP）尚未接獲涉及人工智慧歧視的投訴。
主席先生，我將用中文說幾句話。
（中文）：[請參閱方言發言。] 孔子說：“三十而立，四十不惑，五十知天命。”同樣，勞工部將幫助新加坡人在人生各階段實現職業理想。
對於剛入職場或想轉行的人，我們將幫助你們發掘職業潛力。例如，我們已加強職業轉換培訓計劃，幫助更多工人，包括彈性工作崗位員工，提升技能。如果你是希望職業更上一層樓的專業人士，我們將幫助你獲得海外工作經驗並拓展專業網路。
對於我們的老年工人，請放心：我們將支援你們繼續就業，並幫助滿足基本退休需求。
為支援僱主僱用老年工人，我們已延長高階就業補貼。明年，我們將邁出下一步，提高老年工人的公積金繳費率，並延長公積金過渡補貼。
我們還通過“前進計劃”、“銀髮支援計劃”和匹配退休儲蓄計劃，幫助新加坡人積累退休儲蓄，為他們的黃金歲月提供更大保障。
勞工部也關心低薪工人。我們加強了工作獎勵技能支援，幫助你們提升技能。為支援僱主提高你們的工資，我們也加強了漸進式工資補貼計劃。我們將建設安全、包容的工作場所，確保本地與外籍工人之間的公平競爭。
對於企業，我們將支援你們的轉型和人才發展，助你們持續繁榮。
這是勞工部對新加坡人的承諾。政府將與員工和僱主攜手共建更美好的明天。
晚上7點30分
（英文）：總結，主席先生，今天，支撐和平與繁榮的全球秩序在數週內被顛覆。供應鏈正在轉移，技術迅速發展，充滿不確定性。
但新加坡人有勇氣和動力駕馭這場動盪，尋找新機遇。我們雖小，卻靈活。我們從未被侷限定義，而是被我們如何應對侷限以及持續應對的方式定義。通過新冠疫情，我們見證了企業和工人的適應力和韌性，儘管經歷了一次又一次的危機。
在當今世界，單一工作或“飯碗”的概念可能不再適用，因為變化不僅是常態，而且在加速，新的挑戰和擾動將不斷出現。但我們可以鍛造更強的品質，那就是韌性、適應力和迎接未來挑戰的勇氣。關上一扇門，我們將開闢新路。配方變了，我們能掌握新菜譜。
我們將與每位新加坡人同行，幫助你們度過變革。只要你願意，我們將助你實現最大潛能。
雖然未來充滿不確定，但有一點確定無疑：政府永遠不會讓你失望。政府、工人和企業攜手並進，團結一致——我們將為新加坡和新加坡人創造更光明的未來。[掌聲]
主席：我們將在最後進行澄清。下一位議員未到。姚婉玲女士。
加強漸進式工資補貼計劃
姚婉玲（巴西立-榜鵝）: 零售和餐飲服務業的漸進式工資模型分別於2022年9月和2023年3月推出，積極影響了7.5萬名低薪工人，工資增長介於8.5%至19%，並提供明確的職業路徑。兩組三方工作組今年將再次召開會議，確定下一階段的工資階梯。
僱主支援提升低薪工人的生活水平，但許多企業正面臨經營壓力。2024年，新加坡有超過3,000家餐飲企業關閉，為2005年以來最高。貿易戰陰雲、全球經濟不確定性、原材料成本上漲、電商競爭以及柔佛-新加坡特別經濟區的發展，促使零售和餐飲企業重新思考策略。
鑑於企業提出的關切，勞工部能否進一步加強漸進式工資補貼計劃，支援企業在2026年後繼續提高工資？勞工部是否考慮對獲得漸進式工資標誌的企業給予額外工資支援？
企業主也反映需要進一步簡化向勞工部和公積金局的工資模型報告流程。一家公司報告政府合規成本增加了30%，另一家公司則表示實施工資模型後人力資源人員數量增加了四倍。
鑑於工資模型自2012年實施，勞工部如何最佳化報告流程，減輕企業行政負擔，同時保持問責？
工作獎勵技能支援擴充套件
瑪麗亞姆·賈法爾（森巴旺）: 主席先生，2025年預算增強了工作獎勵技能支援計劃，為低薪工人提供更多實質性的再培訓和技能提升機會，並引入培訓津貼，類似於40歲以上的升級計劃，現擴充套件至30歲以上。
這是重要舉措——認識到30歲以上的工人也處於職業關鍵階段，常常需要平衡工作、家庭和個人理想。許多低收入工人較早育有子女。這將助力那些渴望掌控職業生涯的人，降低他們面臨的經濟障礙。
職業成長和技能發展不應受年齡限制。我們希望所有新加坡人，無論職業階段如何，都能具備成功所需的能力。越早加入這趟列車越好。事實上，一些30歲以下的低薪工人已離校並進入職場一段時間，也將受益於更多培訓機會。
政府將如何教育和鼓勵30歲以上的低薪工人參加更長課程，以實現更深層次的技能提升和更好就業？政府是否考慮進一步擴大工作獎勵技能支援的覆蓋範圍，比如擴充套件至25歲以上？
主席：楊美林先生，請合併兩項發言。
漸進式工資模型
楊益才（拉丁馬士）: 主席先生，距三方低薪工人工作組建議實施已近兩年。這些努力取得了哪些進展？勞工部用什麼基準衡量成功？
令人欣慰的是，政府已率先將漸進式工資標誌作為政府招標的合同義務。除受強制許可和外勞要求約束的公司外，有多少低薪工人因漸進式工資標誌而受益？我們還能做些什麼鼓勵更多公司採用漸進式工資標誌？
漸進式工資模型提升了工資，更重要的是推動了相關行業的長期轉變。我敦促勞工部將漸進式工資模型擴充套件至害蟲管理行業，該行業為必需服務，許多基層工人工資低於本地工人第20百分位。實施漸進式工資模型將有助於減少人員流失，並希望將該行業轉變為新加坡人可持續發展的職業。
工作場所安全與健康
主席先生，2023年及2024年上半年，我們的年化致命傷害率穩定在每10萬名工人1.0。我當時警告必須繼續努力，儘可能降低工作場所事故。
遺憾的是，建築行業似乎出現了自滿情緒。去年12月，勞工部注意到2024年下半年建築工地死亡人數激增。令人擔憂的是，許多事故因缺乏基本安全措施或未遵守既定安全規定而發生。
工作場所致命事故激增令人深感憂慮，因為每失去一條生命都是過多。
勞工部能否更新迄今實施的安全責任、重點和賦權（SAFE）措施？這些措施如何提升了工作場所安全與健康的責任感？預計這些SAFE措施將如何改善建築行業的安全？
勞工部有何計劃持續推動三方在全面工作場所安全與健康（WSH）上的集體努力，包括職業病預防？確保工作場所安全與健康是一項永無止境的任務。勞工部如何計劃在每家公司培育更強的安全文化，而不僅僅依賴執法？
創意自由職業者的工作安全
施金麗女士：自由職業者是創造和交付成品價值鏈的一部分。自由職業者與服務買方之間的議價能力不平衡，導致自由職業者在定價時受市場現實制約，往往根據市場願意支付的價格定價，而未考慮保障其工作健康與安全的成本。
在創意行業中，服務買方如創意製作公司是供應商和承包商，受限於委託公司和政府機構施加的緊迫時間表和預算限制。由於預算有限，創意製作公司可能對採取保障自由職業者健康與安全的措施缺乏積極性，包括對拍攝現場總工時的限制以及對高風險活動如專業吊裝、煙霧效果、特技和武器使用的風險緩解。
部長能否分享《媒體自由職業者服務採購三方標準》是否促進了創意行業工作場所安全的共同責任文化？勞工部有何計劃確保創意行業的自由職業者和服務買方熟悉與其工作相關的健康與安全要求？勞工部是否考慮制定創意和媒體行業的合理工作時間等安全保障措施？
中小企業心理健康資源
翁瑞秋女士：主席，倦怠在新加坡日益嚴重，近期研究顯示61%的工人經歷過倦怠，73%每週感到壓力。
中小企業面臨更大挑戰，往往缺乏支援員工心理健康的資源。大型企業能提供心理健康支援和舉措，而中小企業缺乏專門基礎設施，令工人非常脆弱。
我感謝政府推出瞭如全面工作場所安全與健康計劃，提供免費諮詢，以及衛生促進局的綜合工作場所心理健康解決方案，為工作場所配備健康工具。
然而，倦怠普遍存在，尤其在中小企業中，需要更有針對性的支援。政府將如何加強對缺乏能力有效管理這些挑戰的中小企業的心理健康資源？
集體工作場所安全/健康表現
姚婉玲女士：聯合國定義新加坡將在2026年成為超級老齡化社會。作為老齡社會，工作場所必須更加包容和適應更年長員工的身體需求，從提供更多符合人體工學的支援到更關注長期職業病。
此外，應更多關注和討論生命週期變化，如杜克-國大醫學院所稱的超級老齡化新加坡即將到來的“更年期浪潮”。一些進步企業已制定更年期政策，涵蓋圍絕經期和更年期員工的身心健康，但這些努力仍不均衡。
心理健康也是一個日益重要的職場安全與健康績效指標，新加坡約有七分之一的人一生中經歷過心理障礙。研究還表明，工作壓力是導致心理健康不佳的相關因素之一。一些工作場所設有心理健康推廣員，但在提升這些推廣員的培訓和專業能力方面仍有更多工作可做。
鑑於職場的安全、健康和福祉績效需不斷發展以支援勞動力的變化，勞工部將如何繼續支援僱主，尤其是資源較少的中小企業，共同努力在新加坡企業界建立強大的安全與福祉文化？
支援成熟求職者
謝耀權議員（裕廊）：主席，根據我們的三方裁員指引，當僱主終止僱傭合同時且“短期內無計劃填補該職位”，則推定僱主已裁員。
然而，實際上可能存在僱主以規避裁員監管的方式終止員工的情況。員工可能被迫辭職，或以表現不佳為由被解僱，即使僱主實際上計劃裁撤該職位且短期內無意填補空缺。
因此，受影響的員工實際上感到自己被裁員。如果他們向勞資調解局提起申訴，可能會獲得有利判決，但由於各種原因，受影響員工可能未選擇這樣做，實際上放棄了他們應得的裁員福利。我稱之為“隱形裁員”。
我們知道，四五十歲的成熟員工通常更容易受到裁員影響。我猜測他們也更容易受到我剛才描述的隱形裁員的影響。
裁員對成熟員工的影響深遠，不僅情感上受到打擊，經濟上也尤為嚴重，尤其是當他們肩負著撫養子女和贍養老人的雙重責任時。隱形裁員更是雪上加霜，使員工感到不公、背叛，並默默承受痛苦。
晚上7點45分
勞工部有何計劃加強對成熟員工的就業匹配支援，幫助他們從挫折中恢復？特別是對於那些被告知“自願辭職”，但實際上是被裁員而非自願失業的員工，他們是否仍能獲得求職者支援計劃及最高6個月、最高6,000新元的臨時經濟援助，而該計劃要求求職者必須是非自願失業？
延長資深員工的生產力壽命
葉漢榮議員：主席，我一直倡導延長資深員工的生產力壽命——不僅是應對人口結構變化，更因為他們的經驗、韌性和技能極具價值。
然而，在我們老齡化社會中，我們是否真正利用了這份潛力？2022年，65歲及以上居民的就業率為31%，但近69%月收入低於2,500新元。老年撫養比從2014年的6降至2024年的3.5。我們是否未充分利用這支仍有貢獻能力的勞動力？
如果我們換個角度看呢？2022年，65至69歲老年人的就業率達到47.5%。更多老年人希望工作，但我們是否為他們提供了合適的機會？
對資深員工來說：終身學習不僅是流行詞，而是職業轉型的關鍵。我們如何更好地將技能匹配到新崗位，包括零工經濟中的崗位？我推動了符合老年人興趣和經驗的定製課程。我們是否做得足夠，確保公平工資反映他們的生產力？
對僱主來說：適齡友好型工作場所不僅是錦上添花，而是必需。超過5,000家公司承諾提高退休和再就業年齡。但他們是否在重新設計崗位，使工作更靈活？崗位共享和混合工作安排是常態還是例外？
對政府和三方夥伴來說：2023年，資深就業津貼惠及40萬資深員工和9萬僱主。但為何止步於此？我們能否主動與企業合作，創造更多機會？是時候重新思考勞動力老齡化問題了。我們能否建設一個無論年齡大小，每個人都能有意義貢獻的社會？
延長資深員工的就業能力
沙拉爾·塔哈議員：主席，隨著預期壽命延長和新加坡人健康狀況改善，退休規劃和退休保障變得更加重要。資深員工可能希望繼續工作，但工作時間更短、工作量更輕或安排更靈活。然而，資深員工的就業需要所有利益相關者的觀念轉變。
我們的資深就業政策，如資深就業津貼、崗位重新設計和靈活工作安排，是否對資深員工就業產生了影響？我們是否開始看到資深員工獲得更好、利用其優勢和經驗的重新設計崗位？崗位重新設計是否為資深員工提供了更多且足夠的機會？
在確保勞動力為更長的退休保障做好準備的同時，員工也必須為延長的職業壽命做規劃，承擔起職業和技能提升的責任，尤其是在職業健康檢查和退休規劃中。我們如何幫助員工規劃技能提升，以增強就業能力並延長職業壽命？
分時就業
李顯龍議員：主席，勞動力轉型為企業解決人力挑戰並利用多元化技能勞動力提供了寶貴機會。延長資深就業津貼和支援就業津貼是受歡迎的舉措，使企業能夠利用如資深員工和殘疾人士等未充分利用的勞動力。
為延續這一勢頭，勞工部是否考慮支援崗位分時化，讓資深員工和殘疾人士通過符合其需求的靈活工作安排有意義地貢獻？此外，勞工部能否探索三方標準以規範分時就業，為接受培訓的兼職員工提供資金支援，並與行業協會和商會合作建立官方平臺，促進和管理分時勞動力？這些措施不僅能擴大新加坡勞動力容量，還能為企業提供更靈活和可持續的人力解決方案。
促進包容性增長
沙拉爾·塔哈議員：主席，儘管新加坡保持低失業率並提供許多職業機會，但資深人士、殘障人士和有照顧責任者仍面臨獲得有意義就業的重大挑戰。我們在擴大這些群體的就業機會方面取得進展了嗎？這是否足夠？
以SG Enables為例，儘管其連線殘障人士與就業的努力值得稱讚，但該群體的就業率仍然相對較低。同樣，資深就業津貼激勵企業僱傭年長員工，但如果你問任何正在找工作的資深人士，他們仍會說招聘中存在年齡偏見。靈活工作安排，無論是彈性工作量、彈性工作時間還是彈性工作地點，雖被推廣，但採用情況仍不一致。
我們如何超越計劃和激勵，真正轉變職場文化，推動包容性招聘實踐？我們是否應考慮更強有力的監管措施？還能做些什麼，確保就業包容性不僅是政策目標，而是所有新加坡人的現實？
英文原文
SPRS Hansard · Fetched: 2026-05-02
[(proc text) Debate resumed. (proc text)]
6.36 pm
The Minister for Manpower (Dr Tan See Leng) : Mr Chairman, I thank the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) Members of Parliament and Members who have spoken for our workers as well as our employers. It has been five years since the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, we managed to recover fairly quickly.
During COVID-19, resident unemployment peaked at 4.8%. MOM's priority then was to protect livelihoods. Through the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, we assisted more than 200,000 jobseekers. Now, resident unemployment is at 2.8%, amongst the lowest compared to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
Against the backdrop of wars and supply chain disruptions, most countries, including Singapore, battled global inflation in recent years. For many Singaporeans, the pressures of rising cost of living were a real concern. We managed to cushion this through targeted support for households and income growth that kept pace with, and even exceeded inflation.
Over the last five years, the median real monthly income of residents grew by 3.6%. For lower-wage workers, this was even higher at 5.9%. This means while prices have risen, our wages have increased more. We have done better than other advanced economies, such as the United Kingdom (UK), US and Japan, where real wages have stagnated or declined.
Beyond recovering, we helped workers and businesses to emerge stronger.
First, we supported Singaporeans across career stages.
For working professionals in their 20s to 40s, we helped advance their careers. Our Career Conversion Programmes helped 37,000 workers reskill into growth jobs over the last five years. For mature workers in their 50s onwards, we helped them stay meaningfully employed. The Part-Time Re-employment Grant helped more than 6,500 employers offer work opportunities to 50,000 mature workers.
Second, we strengthened protection for vulnerable groups and helped Singaporeans save up for retirement.
For those who lost their jobs involuntarily, we introduced the SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support Scheme to provide temporary financial support while they look for a job.
For lower-wage workers, we uplifted their wages. We expanded the Progressive Wage Model (PWM), we raised the Local Qualifying Salary (LQS), we enhanced the Workfare Income Supplement to boost their incomes and CPF savings. Up to nine in 10 full-time, lower-wage workers are now covered by PWM, LQS and the Progressive Wage (PW) Mark.
For platform workers, we strengthened their housing and retirement adequacy, their work injury compensation and representation. For persons with disabilities, we boosted their employment from 28% to 34% over the past five years.
We strengthened the retirement adequacy of all Singaporeans. We introduced the $9 billion Majulah Package in 2024 and we expect to spend over $800 million on the enhanced Silver Support Scheme this year for 290,000 seniors. About 740,000 Singaporeans will be eligible for the enhanced Matched Retirement Savings Scheme (MRSS). We want to assure all Singaporeans that they can meet their basic retirement needs so long as they work and contribute consistently to CPF. We will also uplift those who are unable to, or lack the runway to work and save through CPF.
Third, COVID-19 was a wake-up call for businesses to drive productivity and strengthen resilience. We refreshed, therefore, our work pass framework to enable this. We launched the Overseas Networks and Expertise Pass (ONE Pass) for global talent; and the COMPASS for Employment Pass (EP) holders. We remained disciplined in our reliance on Work Permit holders to spur industry transformation.
We supported businesses' transformation. Mr Sharael Taha asked how successful this has been.
Since 2019, we have launched 17 Jobs Transformation Maps. Around 10,000 companies received support to train and to hire workers, and to redesign jobs through schemes, like the Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs). We also launched the HR Industry Transformation Plan in 2023 to drive our workforce transformation.
Finally, we built fairer, more inclusive and safer workplaces. We launched the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests and we built employer capabilities to better attract and retain talent in the workforce. This initiative could potentially unlock access to a sizeable group, with about 240,000 women and 130,000 seniors of working age, which is outside the labour force today.
We passed the Workplace Fairness Bill to combat workplace discrimination. We improved the well-being and safety of migrant workers. We introduced primary care plans, we raised operating standards in dormitories, we improved service offerings at Recreation Centres and we attained a record low workplace fatality rate of 0.99 fatalities per 100,000 workers in 2023.
These achievements were only possible with the strong support of our tripartite partners, the NTUC and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF).
But the work goes on. With significant geopolitical and economic uncertainties ahead, we have projected a more cautious pace of GDP growth in 2025, at about 1% to 3%. In the longer term, two forces will make growth even harder to sustain.
First, our demographic challenge. With our low fertility, our resident workforce is expected to stop growing by the next decade. Our population is also ageing. One in four Singaporeans are projected to be aged 65 and above by 2030.
Second, intensifying global competition. Southeast Asia will benefit from a demographic dividend and we need to keep up as the rest of Southeast Asia grows. Cities, like New York, London and Dubai, they are attracting top companies and talent in fields like biotechnology and AI.
Amidst these challenges, how can we continually grow the economic pie? How do we continue to create meaningful opportunities for Singaporeans?
First, we have to continue to remain open to the world to stay competitive and to support our society's needs. In 2014, there were six working-age residents supporting each elderly resident aged 65 and above. In 2024, last year, this fell to 3.5. Foreign workers blunt this decline. Including them, the old age support ratio in 2024 rises from 3.5 to 5.2.
But there are limits to growing through numbers. The only sustainable way forward is through productivity-driven growth.
We have made good progress on our productivity journey. Supported by the Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs), labour productivity grew by around 2% per annum over the last decade. However, even so, Singapore's productivity remains at 40% to 70% of frontier economies.
There is an exciting opportunity, and that is for us to reshape our economy into one that is driven by productivity and innovation. The global order has also changed dramatically in a matter of weeks. Singapore can stand out as a beacon of stability and as a beacon of openness, drawing in global talent, drawing in global companies.
As Deputy Prime Minister Gan shared earlier on today in his Ministry of Trade and Industry COS speech, we will strengthen our connectivity to the world; we will help our local companies build new brands and new businesses; we will foster a pro-enterprise environment for growth in areas like advanced manufacturing, deep tech and the green economy.
6.45 pm
People – their passion, ingenuity, skills – these are at the heart of this journey. MOM will build a workforce that is adaptable, innovative and diverse, helping Singapore thrive in a turbulent world.
We have three priorities this year: (a) enabling businesses to transform; (b) empowering workers to build career health; and (c) fostering inclusive and safe workplaces.
First, we will enable businesses to transform. Businesses understand this need, but they face a high-cost environment. Part of the increase in manpower cost has been necessary to uplift our lower-wage workers, and this is a priority in our country's social compact. We will alleviate businesses' short-term pressures while we drive and continue to drive long-term transformation.
Second, we will empower workers to build their career health through different life stages even as our economy transforms.
And third, we will foster fair, inclusive and safe workplaces.
Let me start with how we are enabling businesses to transform. To stay competitive, companies need to transform their workforce in tandem with business improvements. We will set aside over $400 million for a new Enterprise Workforce Transformation Package. It will address the calls from Mr Yip Hon Weng, Mr Sharael Taha, Mr Edward Chia and Ms Jean See for more holistic and integrated support for enterprise workforce transformation, with three main features.
First, we will introduce a new SkillsFuture Workforce Development Grant. This will bring together schemes administered by WSG and SSG, and simplify the application process. Companies can access a holistic suite of workforce development support via one application channel, for activities like job redesign, capability building and training. WSG will work with anchor programme partners to advise companies on suitable and sustainable solutions.
Second, we will enhance support for job redesign. Currently, WSG provides funding support of up to 50%, capped at $30,000, for companies to engage pre-approved consultants on job redesign. Under the Workforce Development Grant, we will increase this to 70%. We will also review and raise the cap of $30,000.
Some larger companies have begun identifying workers who may be impacted by AI and proactively reskilling them for new jobs. But other companies, especially SMEs, may need more support for job redesign to address disruptions like the impact of AI. We will expand the scope of coverage for job redesign expenses beyond consultancy services to include equipping line managers and HR with job redesign and change management skills in identifying workforce solutions and AI tools. We will share more details in due course.
Third, the SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit will be redesigned in 2026 to better support workforce transformation. We received feedback that the reimbursement model could better address companies' cash flow issues and be clearer as to which schemes the credits could be used for. With the redesigned scheme, eligible companies will get a fresh $10,000 of credits. Like an online wallet, companies can use the credits to offset out-of-pocket expenses on relevant workforce transformation programmes.
The NTUC's Company Training Committee (CTC) Grant was enhanced in 2024 to support training tied to business transformation. The take-up has been encouraging. As of December 2024, the CTC Grant has supported more than 400 transformation projects, benefiting over 7,000 workers.
Take Ms Rachel Lee, a tax advisor at BDO Tax Advisory. Rachel used to spend many hours on manual tasks, like data collection and document preparation. Using the CTC Grant, BDO Tax Advisory introduced a centralised data platform with a smarter and faster workflow, automated data collection and validation. And this, therefore, allowed Rachel to focus on providing clients personalised support, improving business outcomes.
As announced by the Prime Minister in his Budget speech, we will set aside around $200 million to scale up the grant and to extend it to 2028.
How can educational institutions and employers collaborate to develop future-ready employees? Today, they can co-develop workforce training programmes customised to business needs. We will also expand the CTC Grant to fund employer-led training that provides workers formal certifications. The CTC Grant will provide enhanced support via course fee subsidies and absentee payroll.
We thank Mr Patrick Tay, Mr Yip Hon Weng and Mr Edward Chia for their suggestions to improve HR practices and standards. HR plays an important role in workforce transformation, not just to comply with employment legislation but also to uplift organisations' human capital. We will launch a Tripartite Workgroup on Human Capital Capability Development to raise HR standards and HR professionals' capabilities to contribute strategically to business and workforce outcomes.
Let me now turn to our foreign workforce. Businesses have cited, continually so, manpower constraints as a key challenge.
At the same time, Assoc Prof Jamus Lim shared that there is ground scepticism over the need for foreign talent. That scepticism is natural. When we see a foreigner, we think, "They are taking a job a Iocal could have had". But what is harder to see is that, without the access to foreigners, the company and its jobs may not even be in Singapore to begin with.
The hard truth is that Singapore has a small domestic market and we have no natural resources. As Minister Mentor Mr Lee Kuan Yew once said, "If we do not attract, we do not welcome and we do not make talent feel comfortable in Singapore, we will not be a global city, and we will not count for much."
So, it is very easy to use simplistic arguments to insinuate that it is a zero-sum game, that if you remove one foreigner, you get one more job for a local. Mr Leong shared that he is for an open economy and open society, and asked for facts to support this, to quell anti-immigration sentiments. Let me share the facts.
I take note that he is trained in econometrics, he is a statistician. But please do not underestimate the power of the entire team of Government economists, scholars, Government statisticians who are monitoring this for many, many years and many, many decades, and have also understood the trends. They probably have a deeper depth of knowledge and understanding of the trends than probably you and I do.
So, over the last decade, the number of EP and S Pass holders grew by 38,000. The last 10 years. Resident PMETs grew by 382,000, 10 times more. One in three of the increase in resident PMETs came from non-PMETs upgrading to higher-skilled PMET roles, with residents in their 30s to 50s forming the majority. Members of the House, our upskilling programmes, our investments in our local non-PMETs to upgrade to PMETs have borne fruit.
In the Financial and Insurance Services, Professional Services and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sectors, EP and S Pass holders increased by 18,000. Resident PMETs increased by 172,000, again a 10-fold increase. As of 2024, there were three to six resident PMETs for every one EP or S Pass holder in these sectors. The same story holds, even if one compares only Singapore Citizens, or even local-born Singapore Citizens, to EP and S Pass holders.
Resident data largely mirrors citizen data, because Singapore Citizens have consistently made up about 84% of the resident workforce.
MOM has periodically released statistics and analyses on the employment outcomes of Singapore Citizens. Employment outcomes for Singapore Citizens have been favourable over the last decade. The labour force participation rate of Singapore Citizens has risen, making it one of the highest globally. This is ahead of cities in Japan, Finland and Germany. The unemployment rate of Singapore Citizens has remained stable and low over the decade and, internationally, Singapore has one of the lowest unemployment rates.
We should never develop a "Singaporean only" mentality, because this would deprive us of talent needed to anchor global businesses that benefit Singaporeans. Foreign-owned firms comprise less than one-quarter of companies in Singapore, but they employ about one-third of resident workers, and about 60% of residents in high-paying jobs. Our own local enterprises have benefited from servicing multinational corporations (MNCs) and gaining global exposure. Global companies and foreigners also pay taxes that help fund Government spending on education, healthcare and housing.
Our work pass framework is carefully managed to provide access to high-quality foreigners who support productive sectors and create good jobs for locals. Miss Rachel Ong and Mr Mohd Fahmi have asked for updates on this.
The ONE Pass has continued to attract global talent who create opportunities in Singapore, and about 3,000 ONE Passes were issued in 2024.
Beyond economic contributions, ONE Pass holders have contributed to the local community, mentoring local leaders and startups, volunteering with social organisations and collaborating with our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs).
Take Ms Savita Iyer, the chief financial officer for The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia. She has worked across the globe and volunteers as a mentor with the Singapore Leaders Network Fellowship Programme, which prepares Singaporeans for regional and global leadership roles. One of her mentees is Ms Sueann Yeo, Head of APAC Private Wealth Client Relation, EQT Group. Ms Yeo feels empowered to have a female mentor who is a leader in her field and to apply her mentor's experience to her own leadership journey.
At the EP level, we have finetuned our framework to ensure that EP holders complement our local workforce. The EP qualifying salary is benchmarked to the top one-third of the local PMET wages to ensure that EP holders are of high calibre.
The minimum qualifying salary was increased from $5,000 to $5,600 on 1 January 2025 and there will be no further changes this year. Assoc Prof Jamus Lim suggested levelling the salaries for local and foreign workers through a CPF escrow. I believe this is unnecessary, because when setting the qualifying salary, we already include CPF contributions in the local wage benchmarks. In salary terms, the playing field is actually quite fair. While the take-home pay of an EP holder may be higher because they do not contribute to CPF, this does not mean locals are paid less, because their CPF contributions go towards housing and retirement needs.
Mr Patrick Tay asked for an update on how our EP framework incentivises businesses to develop a strong local core. We implemented COMPASS about a year and a half ago. About 30% of the current EP stock has passed through COMPASS and early results suggest that we are moving in the right direction. Firms more dependent on foreigners of a single nationality or foreigners in general will have to diversify their workforce or they have to hire more locals to pass COMPASS.
Since COMPASS was introduced, the share of firms with higher dependence on foreigners of a single nationality has decreased by 7%, while the share of firms with higher dependence on foreigners generally has decreased by 15%. These firms also created 4,000 more PMET jobs for locals.
7.00 pm
At the S Pass level, we will continue to raise the quality of our workforce and safeguard employment opportunities for local associate professionals and technicians (APTs). We have benchmarked the minimum cost of hiring for S Pass holders to the top one-third of local APT wages. To ease the transition, we phased out the increase in the S Pass qualifying salary over three steps. We announced it in 2022, and phased it out over three steps, in 2022, 2023 and 2025.
In light of businesses' cost challenges, we have moderated the increase. The S Pass minimum qualifying salary will be raised from $3,150 to $3,300. For the Financial Services sector, it will be raised from $3,650 to $3,800. Per usual, the qualifying salaries will increase with age. These changes will apply to new S Pass applications from 1 September 2025, and renewal applications expiring from 1 September 2026. The S Pass levy rate will also be standardised at $650 for all S Pass holders from 1 September 2025. We will continue to review the S Pass qualifying salary against the benchmark, given prevailing economic conditions.
At the Work Permit level, numbers are at an all-time high, 17% above pre-COVID-19 levels. Sectors more reliant on Work Permit holders, such as Construction, Food Services and Accommodation, have experienced low or negative productivity growth over the last decade. You might have read – over 3,000 F&B outlets closed in 2024. But these closures were outpaced by almost 4,000 new openings, with a 4% increase in Work Permit holders.
As Mr Fahmi urged, businesses need to reduce reliance on Work Permit holders by raising productivity and redesigning jobs for locals. Recognising this, the Alliance for Action (AfA) on Business Competitiveness made helpful recommendations to enable businesses to hire higher-skilled workers – and go for quality over quantity.
Mr Mark Lee asked about the recommendation to allow cross-deployment of foreign workers across sectors. It is a complex issue – we need to balance the potential efficiencies against the risk of circumvention of our work pass controls. Having said that, we are studying this in consultation with industry partners and will update when ready.
On the other recommendations, we will adopt them to enhance our Work Permit framework.
First, we will remove the maximum period of employment restrictions for Work Permit holders. Previously, period of employment was capped at 14 to 26 years – causing firms to let go of experienced workers who could be at prime working age. We will also raise the maximum employment age of Work Permit Holders to align with the local retirement age, currently 63. With these changes, employers can retain experienced workers who are still able to contribute.
Mr Jayakumar has worked at KTC Civil Engineering and Construction for 25 years, joining as an Assistant Foreman before rising the ranks to Foreman. With his wealth of experience, Mr Jayakumar mentors and trains newer workers, helps instill a strong culture of safety, and promotes best practices.
KTC welcomes the removal of the maximum period of employment restrictions, which allows experienced workers like Mr Jayakumar to continue contributing to the company's productivity and delivery of projects.
Second, we will expand the list of Non-Traditional Sources to include Laos, Cambodia and Bhutan, considering industry demand. This will allow firms to build a more skilled and resilient workforce.
Third, we will expand the Non-Traditional Sources Occupation List (NTS-OL), to enable businesses in Services and Manufacturing to hire skilled workers from Non-Traditional Sources in more non-PMET occupations, in consultation with industry partners and unions. On top of that, we have included nearly all the manufacturing operator roles recommended by the AfA. We will also include heavy vehicle drivers and cooks. As NTS-OL workers must be paid at least $2,000, this will not undermine efforts to uplift locals in these occupations.
Finally, we recognise companies need manpower support for transformation. The Manpower for Strategic Economic Priorities (M-SEP) scheme provides transitionary Work Permit and S Pass quota to firms contributing to Singapore's economic priorities. We will expand the eligible programmes and add a new pathway for firms that send locals on overseas exposure or leadership programmes. We will also extend the support period from two to three years.
These changes will help us move towards a higher-quality Work Permit workforce. At the same time, we recognise there are essential roles that are difficult to automate and recruit locals for. We have been providing targeted flexibilities, such as for conservancy cleaning.
Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo shared how the Ministry of Home Affairs is carefully augmenting the recruitment pool with foreigners for emergency medical services and auxiliary police officers, even as they maintain a strong local core.
Ms Hazel Poa also suggested allocating more foreign workforce quota to firms with inclusive employment practices. Mr Mark Lee and Mr Zhulkarnian Abdul Rahim had made similar suggestions in Parliament previously. We will study this proposal carefully, given possible trade-offs with the key objectives of our foreign workforce levers to spur business transformation and encourage firms to hire locals.
We are actively reviewing our Work Permit framework to drive transformation, while nuancing it to support different needs as our workforce changes. Updates will be shared in due course.
Moving on to empowering our workers. Singaporeans have a world-class education and work ethic. As our economy transforms, we are well-poised to take advantage of new opportunities. However, formal education alone is not sufficient. The OECD's Survey of Adult Skills found that Singaporeans' literacy skills declined as early as in their mid-30s. We must do more to pursue lifelong learning.
In our Forward Singapore engagements, Singaporeans shared that they looked forward to new opportunities but were uncertain how to get there. Career Health SG is our commitment to empower Singaporeans to develop meaningful and resilient careers amidst economic changes.
For instance, as mentioned in my Ministry of Trade and Industry COS speech, as we transition to a green economy, we are actively reskilling workers to take on new or redesigned green jobs through programmes like the CCP for Sustainability Professionals and the CCP for Future Energy and Chemical sector.
Employers also have a big part to play in supporting their employees. An SBF survey showed 60% of large companies and less than half of SMEs provide their employees with training. We understand. I used to run a business before. When business is good, there is no time to train. When business is bad, there is no money to train.
Employers may also be unsure how to guide employees in their career journey. That is why we have invested in a holistic set of initiatives to support Singaporeans' career health. Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon will elaborate on MOM's efforts to empower Singaporeans to build career health and strengthen support for employers.
Mr Patrick Tay and Mr Leong Mun Wai asked about underemployment in Singapore. Mr Leong has asserted, not for the first time, that underemployment is a severe problem – that it is increasingly difficult for Singaporeans to find jobs matching their skills and aspirations.
I want to share with everyone – I understand the anxieties and I empathise with the apprehensions that Singaporeans today have, that they feel in a rapidly changing world. As Mr Patrick Tay mentioned, the faster pace of economic transformation, all of this accelerated change may lead to mismatches between employers' needs and workers' aspirations.
The underemployment that Mr Leong described earlier is referred to as skills-related underemployment, where individuals believe that their job does not fully utilise their skills. However, today, there is no internationally accepted way to measure this. I shared before – we are working with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to develop such measurements. But this international collaborative process will take time. What we have and what we can measure objectively is time-related underemployment, which he talked about – the one-hour time rate. This is well-defined and an internationally accepted measure. This means, persons working part-time but willing and able to engage in additional work.
Just to share with everyone, and for Mr Leong's consumption as well, Singapore's resident time-related underemployment rate is low and stable, averaging 3.1% over the past decade and it was at a low of 2.3% last year, in 2024.
This is lower than many other developed economies like the United Kingdom (UK) and Finland.
Some workers have personal reasons for taking on jobs that may not match their qualifications – reasons like passion, lifestyle goals or caregiving needs. We respect these choices and we want those who are underemployed voluntarily to have a range of jobs to choose from to suit their needs and their aspirations.
The most common example, which Mr Leong also cited as proof of underemployment, are former PMETs – his example of a senior vice president of a bank who is now a private hire driver. However, we should be very careful about using anecdotal examples and extrapolating this. Only 1.1% of our resident workforce, or about 28,000 residents, are working primarily as private-hire car drivers. We did a survey, an MOM survey, and it shows 63% do so on a "preferred basis" and they shared that they enjoyed the flexibility and freedom the job provides, not because they cannot find permanent work.
Similarly, a survey by Grab shows that more than 70% of their drivers have chosen to take up this work because of "flexibility of time".
What about self-employed persons (SEPs)? MOM's latest survey shows that 94.1% of SEPs who did own account work as a primary form of their livelihood, for example, financial advisors, insurance agents, real estate agents, taxi drivers, private-hire car drivers, preferred such work arrangements. Among them are degree holders who willingly take on jobs that typically do not require a degree because either they found the current work meaningful, because it suits their needs, or maybe it gives them the flexibility that they want.
On the other metrics that Mr Leong alluded to, the picture is also not the dire one that he has painted. Compared to other developed economies, our residents have one of the highest median incomes and labour force participation rates, and lowest unemployment rates.
Incomes of residents have risen across all percentiles in the last decade. Residents earn one of the highest wages in the world, unlike in many other developed countries where wages have either stagnated or declined. The median starting salaries of our graduates are higher than other countries like the UK and Australia, even after adjusting for purchasing power parity.
7.15 pm
More locals have secured PMET jobs in the last decade, with the proportion of our resident workforce in PMET jobs increasing from 54% to 64%. This corresponds to the share of tertiary-educated workers in the resident workforce, which increased from 51% to slightly over 60%, over the same period that we are comparing.
If underemployment was widespread, the PMET share would be much lower than the share of tertiary-educated workers.
The incidence of discouraged workers; that means workers who have given up searching for work, also declined from 0.4% in 2023 to 0.3% in 2024. Majority of these were seniors, whom we are now helping to upskill them for new job opportunities.
I understand – I spend a lot of time talking about the data, but the data may not reassure those who are feeling anxious or who may have lived experiences, difficulties going through their livelihood, struggling to find roles, struggling to find purpose and meaning in life, or to find roles that match their expectations.
Let me assure every fellow Singaporean, for those in this phase of your career journey, you are not alone. Let us help you. We have a wide range of programmes to help you stay up to date in the job market, for you to stay employed, for you to stay confident, for you to seize good job opportunities. That is the spirit behind our Career Health SG.
So, we have a whole list of help schemes that are available. I put up a glossary just to help me, to remind myself as I am going through this speech. There are at least 34 of them. I am happy to share them at the end of this debate and I hope that all of us, all of our fellow Singaporeans, will take full advantage of these programmes to broaden your career horizons.
At the same time, we are committed to ensuring a fair level playing field. We will continue to promote fair employment practices and we will take firm actions against discriminatory hiring. That is how we pass the Workplace Fairness Legislation Bill a month and a half ago.
For those facing setbacks, we have your back.
From April this year, the SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support scheme will provide temporary financial support for involuntarily unemployed persons while they look for a job. And like I said, this is just a transitional support scheme. It sits on top of whatever social assistance schemes that you are already on. Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon will share how eligible individuals can qualify for payouts under the scheme.
For Singaporeans aspiring to become corporate leaders, overseas exposure is crucial. Through the Forward SG exercise, the AfAs on Business Leadership Development (AfA-BLD) and on Business Competitiveness, businesses have highlighted constantly the need for Singaporean corporate leaders with global exposure and perspectives. As stated in the Forward SG report, we will do more to help Singaporeans stand out as leaders in their respective fields.
Mr Sharael Taha and Mr Edward Chia will be glad to learn that we will redouble our efforts to groom the next generation of Singapore Global Leaders on three fronts.
First, as announced by Prime Minister in his Budget speech, we will expand career development opportunities for Singaporean professionals. Today, we support companies to groom Singaporean talents through overseas postings and leadership milestone programmes. These programmes offered by agencies, such as Enterprise Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Infocomm Media Development Authority, cover a range of sectors and support both early-career professionals and mid-career leaders.
We will double the collective capacity of these programmes from 400 participants a year to over 700. This will enable us to groom homegrown leaders, like Andrew Chia, the Head of Wealth and Retail Banking for Singapore, ASEAN and South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank. Prior to his current role, MAS supported his posting to Jakarta as CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Indonesia, as part of their International Postings Programme (iPOST). The invaluable experience prepared him for the current role overseeing the Singaporean franchise and eight other regional markets.
Second, we will enhance overseas transition support for Singaporeans and their families. We know that moving overseas and back can be difficult for families, especially on housing and children's education. We will help to ease the transition. Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat owners with overseas postings during their minimum occupation period can approach HDB to explore flexibilities, such as deferring the minimum occupation period, if they have a clear and reasonable timeline to return to Singapore.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) has measures to support families' education needs and preferences. Through the Assured School Placement scheme, MOE ensures that children of returning Singaporeans are guaranteed a place in a primary or secondary school with vacancies near their home. Those seeking admission to a secondary school based on merit and choice can also take part in the School Placement Exercise for Returning Singaporeans.
The Singapore Leaders Network (SGLN), a leadership community established in 2022 to prepare Singaporeans for regional and global leadership roles, will provide end-to-end support for Singaporeans embarking on overseas stints. It will connect participants with in-market communities and provide guidance on housing and education matters through relevant agencies.
Third, we will strengthen the ecosystem of our leadership communities. These are crucial for building professional networks and accessing career resources. As Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong mentioned, we will enhance SGLN to provide overseas transition support. We will scale-up networking programmes, mentorship opportunities and the flagship SGLN Fellowship programme for middle to senior Singaporean managers. We will share more details soon and I really encourage all aspiring Singaporean leaders to join the network.
We will also foster cross-sector networking between SGLN and sectoral communities, like the Singapore Financial Leaders Network and the SG Digital Leadership Accelerator.
As our population ages, we need to really be very forward-leaning on extending the productive longevity of seniors and strengthening retirement adequacy. So, we will help our senior workers to remain productive for as long as they wish to. We will launch a tripartite-led effort this year to co-develop ideas with citizens and businesses on enabling multi-stage careers for mature workers.
As announced by the Prime Minister in his Budget speech, we will extend the Senior Employment Credit to continue supporting employers in hiring senior workers. We will help our seniors build up their retirement savings by taking the next step to raise senior worker CPF contribution rates in 2026. We will also, at the same time, extend the CPF Transition Offset for employers.
Ms Sylvia Lim suggested changes to the CPF system, including increasing the amount that members can withdraw at age 55. I think she knows that this will reduce members' future monthly payouts when they might need it most. The current withdrawal rules strike a balance between members' immediate needs and ensuring sufficient retirement income for life.
Property owners have the flexibility to set aside their Full Retirement Sum in property and cash to withdraw their retirement account savings above the Basic Retirement Sum. And members born from 1958 can also withdraw up to 20% of their retirement account savings when they turn 65.
To Ms Sylvia Lim's other suggestion to require spousal consent for CPF nominations, our current approach, I have said that before, is aligned with that for wills. The distribution of one's assets is a personal decision. Requiring spousal consent would mean members are no longer free to choose who would receive their CPF savings upon their demise. We will continue reviewing our CPF policies to ensure relevance.
We have made good progress in strengthening the retirement adequacy for Singaporeans through moves in the last two years. We have been raising the CPF monthly salary ceiling to keep pace with salaries. I have said earlier on, it will be raised further from $7,400 to $8,000 from 1 January 2026.
We have also put up the Majulah Package where 1.6 million Singaporeans received the MediSave bonus in December 2024 and about 800,000 also received the Retirement Savings Bonus. From this year, eligible working seniors will receive the annual Earn and Save Bonus for as long as they work.
And this is how the Government has enhanced Singaporeans' retirement adequacy, even as we study moves, such as the Lifetime Retirement Investment Scheme, which Mr Louis Chua mentioned. Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon will share more on our initiatives to help seniors build their retirement savings and stay engaged in the workforce.
It is also important that we foster fair and inclusive workplaces, so that all workers can share in the fruits of our growth. We will continue to uplift our lower-wage workers. To help them upskill for better jobs, we will enhance Workfare Skill Support. We will also enhance the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme (PWCS) to support employers in wage increases. Senior Minister of State Zaqy Mohamad will share more.
We want to foster inclusive workplaces where everyone can contribute, even with different work arrangements. We will enhance CCPs for the reskilling of mid-career new hires and employees on flexi-load jobs.
For persons with disabilities, we have supported firms in making reasonable accommodations, including the Employment Support for Employers to hire Persons with Disabilities scheme and ongoing work on a Tripartite Advisory. We will also help them to build an adequate nest egg.
In the Budget speech, the Prime Minister announced the expansion of the Match Retirement Savings Scheme to include Singaporeans with disabilities, regardless of age, so long as they meet certain criteria. And we will also continue to support the employment of ex-offenders. Minister of State Gan Siow Huang will share more.
We have improved our Workplace Safety and Health outcomes to be on par with developed countries, but we have to continue to stay vigilant. It is always a work in progress. Senior Minister of State Zaqy will share more.
As our economic transformation speeds up, we hear concerns on workers' protection. We will embark on a review of the Employment Act with our tripartite partners to ensure that we continue to strike the right balance between protection for workers, but preserving, at the same time, flexibility for businesses.
We thank Mr Patrick Tay, Mr Louis Ng for their suggestions on the Employment Act, which we will consider in our review and I think we will share more later this year.
Ms Jean See asked about support for employees when companies undergo M&As. These companies must plan retrenchments and contract cessations fairly, based on objective and consistent criteria, following the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Excess Manpower and Responsible Retrenchment. And to guide employers to strengthen their capabilities, we have built up an ecosystem of support through the Institute for Human Resource Professionals and SNEF.
Mr Mark Lee suggested enhancing CCPs for employees redeployed after M&As. As I said in my Ministry of Trade and Industry COS speech, CCPs already offer substantial support for such workers, especially for mature workers, who may need more help during business transitions like mergers. Nonetheless, we will study this.
We also thank Ms See on her points on the fair use of AI. Today, all employers must comply with Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, regardless of whether AI is used in their employment decisions. The Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) has yet to encounter complaints of discrimination involving AI.
Mr Chairman, I will say a few words in Mandarin.
(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] As Confucius said, "At 30, I stood on my feet. At 40, I was no longer lost. And at 50, I knew what destiny is in store for me." Similarly, MOM will help Singaporeans achieve their career aspirations at every stage of life.
For those new to the workforce or looking to switch careers, we will help unlock your career potential. For example, we have enhanced the CCPs to help more workers, including those in flexi-load jobs, upgrade their skills. If you are a working professional aiming to take your career to new heights, we will help you gain overseas work experience and expand your professional networks.
To our senior workers, please be assured: we will support your continued employment and help meet your basic retirement needs.
To support employers in hiring senior workers, we have extended the Senior Employment Credit. Next year, we will take the next step to raise CPF contribution rates for senior workers and extend the CPF Transition Offset.
We are also helping Singaporeans accumulate retirement savings through the Majulah Package, Silver Support Scheme and Matched Retirement Savings Scheme, for greater assurance in their golden years.
MOM also looks after low-wage workers. We enhanced Workfare Skills Support to support your upskilling. To support employers in raising your wages, we have also enhanced the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme. We will build a safe, inclusive workplaces and ensure fair competition between local and foreign workers.
For businesses, we will support your transformation and talent development efforts to help you continue to thrive.
This is a commitment by MOM to Singaporeans. The Government will work with employees and employers to build a better tomorrow.
7.30 pm
( In English ): In conclusion, Mr Chairman, today, the global order underpinning peace and prosperity has been upended in a matter of weeks. Supply chains are shifting. Technology is advancing rapidly. There is great uncertainty.
But Singaporeans have the mettle and drive to navigate this turbulence and find new opportunities. We may be small, but we are nimble. We have never been defined by our limits, but by how we have responded to them and how we continue to respond to them. Through COVID-19, we have seen the adaptability and resilience of our businesses and workers even as we weathered crisis after crisis.
In today’s world, the idea of a single job or rice bowl may no longer hold true, because change is not just constant, it is accelerating, and new challenges and disruptions will always emerge. But we can forge something stronger, and that is the resilience, adaptability and courage to take on whatever comes next. When one door closes, we will carve out a new path. If the ingredients change, we can master new recipes.
We will walk with every Singaporean to help you journey through that change. We will help you realise your fullest potential, so long as you are willing to do so.
While we may not be certain of what lies ahead of us, one thing is certain. The Government will never let you down. The Government, workers and businesses together, coming in unity, in unison – we will achieve a brighter future for Singapore and for Singaporeans. [ Applause. ]
The Chairman : We will take clarifications at the end. The next Member is not here. Ms Yeo Wan Ling.
Enhance Progressive Wage Credit Scheme
Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris-Punggol) : The PWMs for retail and food services sectors were introduced in September 2022 and March 2023 respectively and has positively impacted 75,000 lower-wage workers, with wage increases of between 8.5% and 19% and clear career pathways. The two tripartite workgroups will convene again this year to determine wage ladders for the next phase.
Employers support uplifting the livelihoods of our lower-wage workers, but many are grappling with business pressures. In 2024, over 3,000 F&B businesses closed in Singapore, the highest number since 2005. Challenges such as a looming trade war, global economic uncertainty, rising cost of raw materials, e-commerce competition and the development of the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone are making our retail and F&B businesses rethink their strategies.
Given the concerns raised by businesses, what can the Ministry do to further strengthen the PWCS to support firms in raising wages beyond 2026. Could the Ministry look into recognising enterprises who have attained the PW Mark with additional wage support?
Business owners have also shared the need to further streamline the PWM reporting process to the MOM and CPF. One company reported that Government compliance costs have gone up by 30% while another shared that they quadrupled their HR staff strength after PWM implementation.
Since the PWM has been in place since 2012, how can the Ministry refine reporting processes to reduce administrative burdens on businesses while maintaining accountability?
Workfare Skills Support Expansion
Ms Mariam Jaafar (Sembawang) : Sir, Budget 2025 has made enhancements to the Workfare Skills Support scheme to provide lower-wage workers more access to more substantive reskilling and upskilling and training allowances modelled after the level-up programme for those over 40 to those over 30.
Sir, this is an important move – recognising that those over 30 are also at a critical stage in their careers, often balancing the demands of work, family and personal aspirations. Many lower-income workers also have children relatively earlier in their lives. This will provide a boost to those who are eager to take charge of their careers, lowering the financial hurdles they may face.
Career growth and skills developments should not be bound by age. We want all Singaporeans, no matter where they are in their careers, to be equipped to succeed. The sooner they get on board the train, the better. Indeed, some low-wage workers aged below 30 have also been out of school and in the job market for a while and would benefit from more training opportunities.
How will the Government educate and encourage lower-wage workers over 30 to take up the longer courses that lead to deeper upskilling and better employment? Will the Government consider expanding the Workfare Skills Support enhancements further, say to those over 25?
The Chairman : Mr Melvin Yong. Take your two cuts together.
Progressive Wage Model
Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye (Radin Mas) : Mr Chairman, it has been almost two years since the implementation of recommendations by the Tripartite Workgroup on Lower-Wage Workers. What has been the progress of these efforts and what are the benchmarks that the MOM uses to measure success?
It is heartening that the Government has taken the lead in making the Progressive Wage Mark a contractual obligation for Government tenders. How many lower-wage workers have been uplifted through the PW Mark, beyond the companies that are subject to mandatory licensing and foreign worker requirements? What more can we do to encourage companies to adopt the PW Mark?
The PWM has uplifted wages and more importantly, catalysed longer-term shifts in the PWM sectors. I urge MOM to extend the PWM to the pest management sector, which is an essential service that has many rank and file workers earning wages below the 20th percentile of resident workers. Implementing PWM will help reduce attrition and hopefully, transform the industry into one that can provide a viable career for Singaporeans.
Workplace Safety and Health
Mr Chairman, when our annualised fatal injury rate held steady at 1.0 per 100,000 workers for 2023 and the first half of 2024, I then cautioned that we must continue to work hard to keep our workplace accidents as low as we can.
Unfortunately, complacency seems to have set in for the construction sector. In December last year, MOM noted a spike in construction workplace deaths in the second half of 2024. Worryingly, it was reported that many of these incidents were due to the lack of basic safety measures or non-compliance with established safety measures.
The spike in workplace fatalities is deeply concerning, because every life lost is one too many.
Can MOM provide an update on the Safety Accountability, Focus and Empowerment (SAFE) measures implemented thus far? How have these measures improved workplace safety and health ownership? How are these SAFE measures expected to improve safety in the construction sector?
What is the Ministry's plan to sustain the collective tripartite efforts on total workplace safety and health (WSH), including efforts on occupational disease prevention? Ensuring workplace safety and health is a never-ending endeavour. What is the Ministry's plan to foster a stronger workplace safety culture at every company, beyond just enforcement?
Work Safety for Creative Freelancers
Ms See Jinli Jean : Freelancers are part of the value chain to create and deliver a finished product. Oftentimes, the imbalance of bargaining power between freelancers and service buyers means that freelancers are held in check by market reality when pricing their fees. Thus, freelancers would tend to price their fees based on what the market is prepared to pay, without factoring in the cost of safeguarding their health and safety at work.
In the context of the creative industry, service buyers such as creative production houses are vendors and contractors that are held in check by the market reality of tight timelines and tighter budgets imposed by commissioning firms and Government agencies. Because of budget limitations, creative production houses could be apathetic towards putting in measures that safeguard the health and safety of freelancers, including guidance on a cap on the total hours of work on set and ensuring risk mitigation for higher-risk activities such as specialised rigging, smoke effects, stunts and the use of weapons.
Could the Minister share if the Tripartite Standard on Procurement of Services from Media Freelancers has promoted a culture of shared responsibility for workplace safety in the creative industry? What are the Ministry's plans to ensure that freelancers and service buyers in the creative industry are familiar with the health and safety requirements that are relevant to the work that they do, control, contract or commission? Would the Ministry consider outlining safe work safeguards, such as reasonable hours of work for the creative and media industry?
Mental Health Resources for SMEs
Miss Rachel Ong : Chairman, burnout is a growing concern in Singapore, with 61% of workers experiencing it and 73% feeling stress weekly, according to recent studies.
SMEs face even greater challenges, often lacking the resources to support employees' mental well-being. While larger firms can afford to provide mental health support and initiatives, SMEs struggle without dedicated infrastructure, leaving workers very vulnerable.
I am grateful that the Government has introduced initiatives like the Total Workplace Safety and Health programme, offering free consultations, as well as HPB's integrated workplace mental health solution, which equips workplaces with wellness tools.
Yet with burnout widespread, especially in SMEs, more targeted support is needed. How will the Government enhance mental health resources for SMEs that lack the capacity to manage these challenges effectively?
Collective Workplace Safety/Health Performance
Ms Yeo Wan Ling : Singapore will be super-ageing society as defined by the United Nations (UN) in 2026. As an ageing society, workplaces must be more inclusive and accommodative to the physical needs of a more senior staff base, from providing more ergonomic support to more aware of long-term work-related disorders.
In addition, more attention and conversations can be situated around lifecycle changes such as menopause, which Duke-NUS has dubbed the Menopause Wave to come in a super-ageing Singapore. Some progressive companies have put together menopause policies, which cover the physical and mental well-being of peri-menopause and menopause employees, but efforts are at best spotty.
Mental wellness is also an increasingly important workplace safety and health performance indicator, with around one in seven people in Singapore experiencing a mental disorder in their lifetime. Studies have also suggested that work stressors were among factors associated with poor mental health. Some workplaces have mental wellness champions, but more can be done to enhance the training and expertise of such champions.
Given that it is important that safety, wellness and health performance in our workplaces continue to evolve to support our workforce changes, how will the Ministry continue to support employers, especially the less resourced SMEs, in the collective efforts to build a strong safety and wellness culture in corporate Singapore?
Support for Mature Jobseekers
Mr Xie Yao Quan (Jurong) : Chairman, according to our tripartite guidelines for retrenchment, an employer is presumed to have retrenched an employee when the employer terminates the employment contract with "no plan to fill the vacancy any time soon".
However, in practice, there could have been instances in which employers terminated employees in ways that were calculated to fly under the radar of retrenchment. Employees might have been made to resign or are let go in the name of poor performance, even if employers were really planning to make their roles redundant and not planning to fill the vacancy any time soon.
So, the affected employees feel like they are in fact being retrenched. If they file a case with the TADM, they can probably get a judgement in their favour, but affected employees might not have chosen to do so for various reasons and effectively they chose to forgo the retrenchment benefits that they ought to have received. I call this stealth retrenchment.
We know mature workers in their forties and fifties are especially affected by retrenchments in general. My guess is that they are also disproportionately affected by stealth retrenchments, as I just described.
Retrenchment affects a mature worker profoundly. Emotionally, for sure, but also financially, especially if the mature worker is sandwiched between children and elderly parents. And retrenchment done in stealth adds salt to the wound and cuts even deeper as the worker feels a sense of injustice, betrayal and suffering in silence.
7.45 pm
What are MOM's plans to enhance job matching support for mature workers and help them bounce back from setbacks? And in particular, for those who were told to "resign", ostensibly on their own accord, but were, in reality, laid off and thus involuntarily unemployed, will they still be able to access the Jobseeker Support Scheme and the temporary financial support of up to $6,000 for six months when the Scheme requires the jobseeker to have been involuntarily unemployed?
Productive Longevity for Senior Workers
Mr Yip Hon Weng : Chairman, I have long championed extending the productive longevity of our senior workers – not just to tackle demographic shifts, but because their experience, resilience and skills are invaluable.
Yet, in our ageing society, are we truly harnessing this potential? In 2022, 31% of residents aged 65 and above were employed, but nearly 69% earned less than $2,500 monthly. The old-age support ratio has plunged from six in 2014 to 3.5 in 2024. Are we underutilising a workforce that still has much to give?
What if we flipped the script? The employment rate for seniors aged 65 to 69 hit 47.5% in 2022. More seniors want to work, but are we offering them the right opportunities?
To our senior workers: lifelong learning is not just a buzzword. It is the key to career reinvention. How can we better match skills to new roles, including those in the gig economy? I have pushed for tailored courses that align with seniors' interests and experience. Are we doing enough to ensure that fair wages reflect their productivity?
To employers: age-friendly workplaces are not just nice to have; they are a necessity. Over 5,000 companies have committed to raising retirement and re-employment ages. But are they redesigning roles to make work more flexible? Are job-sharing and hybrid arrangements becoming the norm, or the exception?
To the Government and tripartite partners: the Senior Employment Credit benefited 400,000 senior workers and 90,000 employers in 2023. But why stop there? Could we proactively partner with businesses to create more opportunities? It is time to rethink ageing in the workforce. Can we build a society where every individual, regardless of age, has a place to contribute meaningfully?
Extending Employability of Senior Workers
Mr Sharael Taha : Mr Chairman, with increased life expectancy and Singaporeans being healthier, it is even more important to plan for retirement and retirement adequacy. Senior workers may also want to continue working with shorter hours, lighter workloads or flexible schedules. However, the employment of seniors will require a shift in mindset from all stakeholders.
Have our policies on senior employment, such as Senior Employment Credit, job redesign and flexible work arrangements made an impact on senior employment? Are we starting to see seniors getting employed in better redesign jobs that leverage on their strength and experience? Has job redesign provided more and enough opportunities for our senior workers?
While ensuring that our workforce is prepared for a longer retirement adequacy, workers must also plan for their extended career longevity by taking responsibility for their career and skills upgrading, especially as part of their career health check and retirement planning. How can we help our workers plan for upskilling to enhance their employability and extend their career longevity?
Fractional Employment
Mr Mark Lee : Chairman, workforce transformation presents a valuable opportunity for businesses to address manpower challenges while tapping into a diverse and skilled labour pool. The extension of the Senior Employment Credit and Enabling Employment Credit is a welcome move, as it enables businesses to tap into underutilised labour pools such as seniors and persons with disabilities.
To build on this momentum, will the Ministry consider supporting job fractionalisation, allowing seniors and persons with disabilities to contribute meaningfully through FWAs tailored to their needs? Additionally, can the Ministry explore tripartite standards for fractional employment, funding support for part-time workers undergoing training, and the creation of official platforms, working alongside trade associations and chambers, to facilitate and manage a fractional workforce? These measures would not only expand Singapore' workforce capacity but also provide businesses with more adaptable and sustainable manpower solutions.
Fostering Inclusive Growth
Mr Sharael Taha : Chairman, while Singapore maintains a low unemployment rate and offers many career opportunities, securing meaningful employment remains a significant challenge for seniors, differently-abled individuals, and those with caregiving responsibilities. Have we moved the needle in expanding job opportunities for these groups of individuals? Is it enough?
Take, for example, SG Enables efforts to connect persons with disabilities to jobs while commendable, the employment rate for this group still remains relatively low. Similarly, the Senior Employment Credit incentivises business to hire older workers, but if you were to ask any seniors looking for jobs, they will still share that age bias persist in hiring practices. FWAs, whether flexi-load, flexi-time or flexi-place have been promoted. However, adoption remains inconsistent.
How do we go beyond schemes and incentives to truly shift workplace culture towards inclusive hiring practices? Should we consider stronger regulatory measures? What more can be done to ensure that employment inclusivity is not just a policy goal, but a reality for all Singaporeans?