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Over 140,000 enterprises employ 1.9 million local employees across various industries in Singapore. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, more of these workers may lose their jobs. Some of these jobs will not come back as many enterprises face structural challenges that threaten their survival.
The Fortitude Budget aims to do more at protecting the livelihoods of workers in Singapore.
1. The Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) supports firms in retaining and paying their workers. Through the JSS, the Singapore government is flowing an additional SGD2.9 billion to support wage costs for 10 months instead of the original 9 months. Both firms coming out of the circuit breaker and those unable to resume operations immediately after the circuit breaker. will receive this additional month of payout. Furthermore, the level of wage support for firms in sectors that are more severely impacted will be increased from the previous 25%, to either 75% or 50%.
2. The SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package has been launched to create 40,000 jobs in the public and private sectors. The public sector will create 15,000 jobs by bringing forward its hiring to meet long-term needs in areas like early childhood education, healthcare and long-term care while continuing to hire in areas related to COVID-19 operations such as healthcare declaration assistants and swabbers. The government agencies will work with businesses to create 25,000 jobs.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat presented the Fortitude Budget in Parliament on Tue, 26 May 2020. This SGD33 billion Supplementary Budget builds on the Unity, Resilience and Solidarity Budgets to help businesses and individuals in Singapore adapt and build resilience, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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