Under-employment among older PMETs is seeing an uptrend in Singapore

Singapore's labour movement said tackling the issue of under-employed workers will be a big challenge in the coming year.

It said under-employment is becoming more pertinent among older Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians also known as (PMETs).

And efforts must be put in place to help them get jobs suited to their skills and qualifications.

PMETs were the hardest hit during the economic downturn. Many, like those in the financial sector, were left jobless and the labour movement said they had to settle for whatever job they could get to make ends meet.

But while this brings down unemployment levels, the issue of under-employment has been on the uptrend.

Halimah Yacob, Deputy Secretary-General, NTUC, said: "He may be very qualified, very skilled, but the jobs that he wants to do and is willing to do is not available. H

“He ends up doing a job that does not make full capacity, productive use of his capabilities. It also involves the case where jobs are not paying them the kind of salary or earning that they feel is commensurate with their qualifications and skills."

Madam Halimah said she's seen many cases where middle-aged degree-holders who lost jobs during the downturn become taxi drivers.

She said such under-employment is unavoidable as with slow economic growth, job opportunities are limited.

But as the economy recovers, the labour movement will offer targeted help to under-employed workers.

Mdm Halimah said: "We recognise that the person cannot remain underemployed in perpetuity because that is going to be very frustrating and demoralising. That is where we then need to focus help to help him to transit so that he can make better use of his skills and capabilities to move to other sectors and to retrain them and move to other sectors that require their skills and qualifications.

“Of course it may not be easy because some of them may be working in one sector for so many years. So a re-tuning is needed to acquire other skills to move to other sectors."

The labour movement will work on job-matching assistance and training courses and Madam Halimah said workers must also actively find out more about job opportunities relevant to them.

- Channel News Asia