More grads in S'pore join jobless queue

The phenomenon is, of course, not unique to Singapore. In America, engineers have become hamburger flippers or insurance salesmen.

The PMET plight here is aggravated by the influx of expatriate graduates from abroad hungry for work for less money.

At the same time, Singapore's productivity growth is in long-term decline, dragged down by the addition of two million foreigners.

The opposition Workers' Party leader, Low Thia Khiang, said productivity in the past decade was an average 1% a year — down from 5% in the 1980s and 3% in the 1990s.

By allowing easy access to cheap imported labor, the government was partly to blame for the decline, he said.

The authorities have drawn up long-term plans to lift productivity, starting with higher levies on foreign workers and greater retraining help for locals.

For downgraded Singaporeans, the action means little.

They include some 600 graduates who have applied for a license to drive a taxi, an increase of 23% over 2003.

“What a waste of talent,” said the Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao, which noticed that graduate-drivers were also becoming younger.

To government backbencher and trade union leader Halimah Yacob, the idea of retrenched degree holders driving taxis is “unavoidable” at times when growth is slow and jobs hard to come by.

Online news site Temasek Review said, in the past, only highly qualified expats and blue collar workers were permitted to work here.

“In the past few years, foreign PMETs have flooded the Singapore labor market, leading to intense competition with locals for jobs” and forcing down earnings.

Under the headline “Graduates dealt harder jobs blow”, The Straits Times, quoting revised official figures, reported: “Despite signs of a turnaround in the job market, university graduates are no better off. In fact, more of them are without jobs and taking longer to land a job.”

To avoid losing out, some youths are leaving out their post-graduate qualifications when they apply for a job, and it often works.

A blogger notes: “Remember that being 'over-qualified' won't make the house payments; rather it can prove to be a roadblock to winning your desired job.”

The general decline is not lost on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Looong.

In a recent speech, he applauded “resilient Singaporeans” who had willingly taken on “any available jobs to support themselves and their families, and keep the unemployment rate down.”

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