Think for a moment. If we have an all-Singaporean workforce, today, more Singaporeans would be jobless.
Foreign workers have always acted as a buffer against local retrenchment in a recession. This was the case during the global financial crisis in 2009. Consequently, unemployment among Singaporeans was kept lower than it would have been.
The Singaporean core, which stood at 66% before the retrenchment exercise, rose to 75% after the layoffs.
“In all instances where a foreign employee and local employee had the same performance grade, preference was given to the local to be retained. In fact, for each category of workers, the foreign employee had to have a higher performance rating compared to the local employee, in order not to be retrenched,” said MOM.
