Effect Of Labour Crunch In Singapore Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

EFFECT OF LABOUR CRUNCH IN SINGAPORE
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Professor
University
City and state
17th October, 2016
Introduction
Singapore has encountered a very high rate of development which has led to labour shortage. The high level of growth has resulted in increased demand for workers as workers participation rises. According to Eng Chuan (2007), employee participation rate rises above that of developed countries, to indicate the escalated demand for labour in the country. The declining workforce size, according to Eng Chuan (2007), shows that the country has to import labour from other nations if further development is to be achieved. However, this option has been faced with several drawbacks which ought to be mitigated. Exploring various practical setback mitigation policies will secure economic development which has already been negatively affected by the scarcity of labour in the country.
Negative Factors Leading to Scarcity of Labour
Following a significant influx of workers from neighbouring countries, the country has adopted tighter regulatory measures. These measures, however, have seen the number of incoming workers reduce to warrant labour demand, as the incoming workers are not enough. The negative implication of a Jakarta post, that named Singapore as a “killing field” impacted negatively on the name of the country (Eng Chuan, 2007). Potential workers could have been discouraged. What is more, the introduced English test to all immigrants of the country led to a reduced number of incoming workers. Those who fail the tests have to be deported back to their countries. Unfortunately, the most affected are the domestic workers who take care of children as their mothers go to work. Most women who are Singapore citizens now lack maids to look after their children back at home while they are out there working.
As Singapore rises on the economic edges, the countrymen are facing financial hardships that are associated with high living standards. This has made life hard for incoming workers who are considerably paid a low salary as they are armatures. This has caused workers to move out of Singapore to Malaysia. Hui (1997) expresses his concern since Malaysia had been a loyal labour force provider, yet now the workers are moving back to their country.
Employment growth has been reducing in the years after a kind of a peak level was attained. Since, 18985, there had been declining rate of growth of GDP. This has been felt by workers as more than a hundred thousand workers lost their jobs (Hui, 1997). Various policies were adopted to control the declining economic growth, among them capping the wage rates using a wage determination system. The sudden economic downfall shunned many potential workers in the country as they had to find employment elsewhere. The country only reinstalled development between 1987 and 1989. However, the unpredictability of labour demand has led to many worker opting to find work to places where job security is ensured.
Crime remains a major concern that has raised an alert on the immigrants. It has been reported that most foreigners have retaliated the deportation exercises through involvement in the crime. This has resulted in a negative perception; that has influenced employment of these foreigners (Hui, 1997). Among the offence mitigation strategies that have been adopted are behavioural interviews, which are perceived to be more critical than experience, as implied by Cheng and Brown (1998).
Labour Force Efficiency Strategies
While Singapore suffers from insufficient labour supply, the country could develop measures meant to ensure an optimum utility of the little available man-hours (Lee and Bruvold, 2003). On this wake, industries in Singapore have been encouraged to develop higher value processing, using technology intensive production methods, as Perry (1992) explains. On the other hand, Cheng and Brown (1998) hold the view that improved training on workers will improve their productivity.
Proper communication demands, language training while, appropriate management skills adds value to the labour productivity. Added management strategies that look promising include subcontracting and part-timing (Ofori and Debrah, 1998). Part-timers offer a flexible and a sure way of retaining workers as they can still carry out other duties while still working for a given portion of a day (Cheng and Brown, 1998).
Following several negative encounters with foreign workers, the need for proper assimilation demands orientation and socialisation as part of the induction process. This approach ensures that those employees that pass the behaviour interview are furthered enriched with appropriate etiquette and manners (O'Reilly III, Caldwell and Barnett, 1989). A positive attitude can also be impacted on these workers to make them loyal and committed to their work (Cheng and Brown, 1998; Van Dyne and Ang, 1998).
The freshly hired interns can be trained to make great workers. While more than 85% of the foreign workforce is made up of unskilled workers, training them and converting them to experts remains the most generous way of utilising the labour (Van Dyne and Ang, 1998). Only the skilled labourers can match the technologically upgraded production systems (Hui, 1997). To retaining the trained workers, job promotion offers a promising future to workers in Singapore, and the promotion acts as an employment incentive (Cheng and Brown, 1998).
Incorporating ICT in production has improved the production rate and ensured that fewer workers are needed. To develop trust to the foreign workers, CCTV cameras have been installed to monitor the untrustworthy employees (Thomas and Lim, 2011). In other instances, the two authors have developed the notion that women who leave their houses with unreliable maids have installed CCTV cameras in their homes so that they can remotely monitor the girls (Thomas and Lim, 2011).
Conclusion
While labour appears to be a consistent determinant of Singapore’s economic performance, little can be done to change the domestic labour sup...