During the economic slowdown a few years ago, many matured workers were retrenched. NTUC Income created the position of customer relations officers for over 300 mature workers to find a second career.
Last night, after the Income Day dinner, a lady approached me. She said, "Mr Tan, I am a customer relations officer. I want to thank you for creating this job which allowed me to continue to be employed".
She was almost in tears, as she spoke. I was moved.
It was nice of her to express her appreciation. Most people will take these things for granted.
Dear Mr. Tan,
ReplyDeleteI applaud your efforts in creating jobs for matured workers during tough times, and i hope more employers in Singapore will do so during good times. Though the recent MOM statistics show an improvement in the employment of matured workers, there are still 38,800 of those unemployed age 40 & above, representing 46.1% of the total unemployed (source: Table 2 in MOM Labour Market 2nd Qtr 2006). Within this category there 5,800 with diploma or degree (vs 6,800 in the age group of 30 - 39). This is alarming as these are people with substantial professional experience and are likely to be in some kind of supervisory or managerial postion who can make significant contribution to the economy and businesses, and in turn creating new job opportunities for the younger workers. With the aging population we will see more and more professionals falling into the "sandwitched" age group of 40+, with young family and perhaps aged parents to look after. No doubt we need to provide younger workers a career path to grow, the experience of matured ones are valuable in many ways. A concerted effort is needed to address this situtation and help bringing them back to join the work force. Thanks!
- Francis Zheng
(sorry I forgot to include your name and my name in the earlier posting, my apology!)