To create and retain jobs for Singaporeans, the Government has proposed to introduce the Jobs Credit which would encourage the businesses to preserve the jobs during the recession. The Jobs Credit is valid for one year and employers will get the Jobs Credit in four payments March, June, September and December 2009.
The features of the scheme are as follows:
- Employers will get a 12% cash grant on the first $2,500 of each month's wages for each employee on their CPF payroll.
- For each payment, employers will receive Jobs Credits on the employees that are on their CPF payrolls at the beginning of the quarter in which the payment is made. The wages paid to these employees in the previous quarter would be the qualifying wages to calculate the 12% cash credit that employers would receive. For e.g. if the first payment is to be received at the end of March 2009,business would get Jobs Credit on the employees on their payrolls in January 2009.The wages paid to the employees in October to December 2008 would be the qualifying wages used to calculate the 12% cash credit that employers would receive.
Spur for Workers and Professionals
To enable Singapore citizens to upgrade their skills, to enable them to stay employed or seek re-employment, the Government initiated the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) which provides higher course fee support for companies and individuals and absentee payrolls for companies that send their workers for training.
The Government would make the following enhancements to SPUR to help PMETs re-train:
- Course fee subsidies for PMET-level courses that are eligible for SPUR would be increased from 80% to 90%, the same subsidy level as rank and-file level courses. This includes all Specialist and Advanced Diplomas offered by the polytechnics.
- Selected tertiary courses at UniSIM and the three publicly funded universities will be included under SPUR.
Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) Special Payment
The Government would provide low-income workers a temporary WIS Special Payment to supplement their pay and encourage them to stay employed. The WIS Special Payment will provide low-income workers with an additional 50% of the WIS payments that they will receive over the course of this year.
The Government will also relax the work eligibility criteria of the WIS Special Payment, in order to enable more low-wage workers, particularly those with less regular employment, to benefit.
Government Hiring
The Government will be expanding recruitment. In total, 18,000 public sector jobs (including Government-supported jobs outside of the Government in areas such as childcare, tertiary education, and restructured hospitals) are expected to be available over the next two years. This includes about:
- 7,500 jobs in teaching positions and teaching support staff;
- 4,500 healthcare professionals and hospital administrative staff;
- 1,400 jobs for the Home Team;
- 2,000 jobs for MINDEF (including the SAF); and
- 2,600 for the rest of the Public Service.
