SINGAPORE: Jobs Still Elusive for Elderly

Voluntary body says it's getting harder to find work for mature workers SINGAPORE (Today News), August 7, 2006: Despite the Government's efforts to help older workers stay employed, those who are already jobless still don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. Last Monday, the National Trades Union Congress announced that another 61 companies had joined its scheme to help employees stay in their jobs beyond the age of 62, bringing the total number of firms on the programme to 84. However, as far as the Singapore Action Group for Elders, or Sage, is concerned, the situation on the ground — in terms of finding work for job-seeking senior citizens — is getting worse. Since 1997, the nine-men Voluntary Welfare Organisation, which is holding a charity walk on Sunday (SAGE's Charity Fun Walk-Along Carnival 2006 will be held on Sunday at East Coast Park from 8am to 5pm.) has been running a job-matching service for those above 45 years old. And the programme's recent figures are telling: * Between April and December in 2004, 466 mature workers sought Sage's help to get jobs, with 257, or 55 per cent, of them landing employment. * For the whole of last year, 604 older workers sought jobs through the programme but less than four in 10 found work. And out of the 232 seniors placed out to work, only 65 per cent of them managed to stay on for more than three months on the job. * The proportion of successful matches dropped further for the first four months of this year — only 57 out of 167, or 34 per cent of those who came knocking on Sage's doors, were subsequently employed. According to its senior executive for community services, Ms Ivy Tan, the organisation sees an average of two cases a day. "However, in the last few months, we saw up to five elderly per day," said Ms Tan. According to Ms Tan, about seven in 10 of those who come to Sage for help in seeking jobs hold O-level qualifications. Another 15 per cent have either a diploma or a degree. She added: "The rest have zero education and these are people who are mostly above 70 years old." While Singapore's current unemployment rate of 2.9 per cent is not causing undue concern for the Government, it has focused its efforts on helping its unemployed middle-aged and elderly citizens — or what it terms "the most vulnerable group" — to find work through retraining as well as redesigning jobs for them. Sage's job-matching service has about 35 companies on board, with the bulk of them being local SMEs (small and medium enterprises), and some Government ministries and statutory boards. Sage also scours through recruitment advertisements to help the senior citizens land jobs. But the rejections outnumber the successful matches, said Ms Tan. Said Ms Tan: "Let's take the post of an administrative assistant, for example. Companies would pay about $1,700 for a worker. But they would push down the pay to $1,100 when it comes to employing a senior citizen, claiming that older workers are less efficient, slower and not as good at their jobs compared to younger people. "We would have to fight for higher pay on behalf of the senior citizens." Even when employers agree to take on the senior citizens, they would usually ask for a trial period. She added: "We would arrange a one-month trial period for our senior citizens to work for them. Even then, they would return some of them to us, citing various reasons." Nonetheless, it takes two hands to clap, said Ms Tan. She added: "Sometimes, the senior citizens would come back to us after the trial period and say that they didn't like the job citing the salary as being too low, it's too tiring or too boring, especially those who have higher educational qualifications or who were previously self-employed. In fact, some of them come to us stating that they only want to work as supervisors. "Frankly, jobs at that level are very limited on the market for the senior citizens." By Loh Chee Kong Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd. All rights reserved.