“I will renounce my Singapore citizenship if I still cant find a job soon…”
48-year-old Edmund – looking younger with his jet-black dyed hair and boyish look, was dead serious when he related this shocking statement to me earlier in the week at Raffles City.
I have met close to two hundred jobless PMETs face to face during these past few years managing Transitioing but this is the first time that someone told me emphatically he wanted to renounce his citizenship due to prolonged unemployment.
Each year, more than a thousand Singaporeans would renounce their citizenship as they have found greener pastures abroad. Many have resettled in Australia (40,000), UK (30,000), US (20,000), China (20,000) among others.
I am sure that many who have moved abroad did so because they couldn’t get a proper job here. Many who chose to renounce their citizenship also has an eye on the fattening CPF account which they have built up during the hey days when they were working here.
Many Singaporeans are also unhappy that the withdrawal age has being extended from 63 to 65 years old recently and the government will only provide amonthly allowance to them based on how much they have put into the retirement account.
They wanted to have more say on how they should manage their own CPF retirement money.
As for Edmund, life went very much downhill when he was retrenched a year ago by a local semi-con company based in Indonesia. He was subsequently replaced by a cheaper local Indonesian who probably cost less than one third of his salary.
The company now has a one-third Singaporean workforce with the rest making up of foreigners - with Indonesians and Malaysian forming the bulk of the foreign legion.
He was earning close to $67,000 annually for the seven years that he was working with the company and even found a Indonesian wife while stationed abroad .
He was happy, life was comfortable then and he seldom returned to Singapore even though it was just an hour away by ferry across the straits. He also lost touch with the local employment situation while working abroad and only realised how much has changed when he returned to look for work recently.
Highly educated and armed with a master degree in logistics, there is every reason to believe that life would not be difficult for Edmund.
Now jobless at age 48 years old, he attended only 5-6 interviews over the past one year and realised that age was the main barrier for him getting rehired.
“One local employer even told me that I was the oldest candidate he has interviewed!” Edmund related to me intensely.
Edmund is willing to even to take up a job that pays half of his previous salary – only if there is one employer that is willing to provide him that chance.
As he was also interested in doing training, he applied for a driving instructor job with the driving school though the pay was only slightly above $2000. However, no one bothers to contact him for an interview.
I told him that his high educational qualification could also be a deterrance as interviewers who are department heads may find him a threat especially if they don’t have such high qualification as him.
“Perhaps so,” Edmund whispered softly. “I may need to remove my masters degree from my resume when I am applying for jobs now!”
As his severance pay is finishing soon, Edmund may have no choice but to take the drastic step of renouncing his citizenship so that he can withdraw his massive CPF money to start a small business in Indonesia.
“I have a Indonesian wife and recently the Indonesian government has make it easier for foreigners to apply for citizenship if they marry Indonesian women.”
He also hoped that the government will tighten up the foreign worker influx and brings in true talents and not just anyone who could fill the company’s foreign quota.
As we ended our interview, I found that there could be many Edmunds out there – highly qualified, well experienced but at the wrong end of the age barrier.
If Singaporean employers continue to shun older PMETs from the workforce, many of them will look for opportunities abroad resulting in a serious brain drain soon.
Those who could not move will have to stay on and if the dire situation persists it could turn into a potential social time bomb with adverse consequences.
Men at the age of mid to late 40s are still very productive and more signficantly they still have mortagges to pay and young children to take care of.
If they stay jobless for a prolongd period, all their savings may be emptied out and during acute financial distress, families will be adversely affected with many even ending in divorce.
Transitioning has estimated that 30% of the jobless PMETs faced serious familial issues at home with some even talking of divorcing their spouses due to financial stressors. It is with this sombre statistics that we have started a divorce support site www.steadymarriages.com one and a half year ago.
Moreover, ironically, employers have always complaint that they could not find suitable local applicants when they put up job advertisements - the truth is that there are local jobseekers applying but they are not the younger lot whom employers want to hire.
Transitioning hopes that our local employers will be sympathetic to older workers applying for jobs.
They are willing to work for much reduced salaries and why not give them the opportunity to try it out than flatly rejecting them?
Remember that we are a fast greying population and if too many of our mid-aged workers stay unemployed or underemployed, I am sure that this will have serious social repercussion on our society.
Written by: Gilbert Goh
Seriously this is no laughing matter. All of us will grow old one day regardless how far and how high we have achieved in our career. If one can make it in life and retire graciously, that’s great! Sadly not many are so fortunate even their earnings were not too bad as a PMET. Especially so if they started late and made a couples of heavy commitment. Then any stoppages in work and income would hurt them and their family directly.
Recently I heard over states media that some 62 and above were engaged in some disputes over rehiring matter. It’s very clear that employers do not want to hire or rehire older workers for all sorts of reason they can give. Since govt ENCOURAGED company to rehire beyond 62, I would love to see what they are going to do about it. Is it just another usual TCSS session?
We are not looking for anyone to blame as some may have miscontrued. All we are asking that the government look into the issue seriously with some solutions ASAP. Of course we need to take care of younger singaporeans as well. But by Importing young foreigners to displace older Singaporeans in the workforce is just a short sighted and short term solution. One fine day govt policy on FT will backfire and singapore will hallow out. Perhaps national agenda is TOPPEST OF TOP priority like GDP.
Last year, I’ve applied for SG citizenship renunciation but I’d hold back due to friends and family asking favour to stay put just for one more GE, I forced myself to bite the bullet for staying back.
Still, I’m not so optimistic in SG vote future result. As we may already aware that government is extremely desperate to dilute the vote counts through new citizens.
As Tharman expect Singaporeans to embrace and integrate with upcoming Indian nationals, the very big tsunami wave can be expected. The one that will survive are the PAP grassroots and close members — Singapore citizen only. I believe government will put bait for new immigrant to bite it for citizenship.
But I am prepared to leave anytime if the waits no longer have its worthy.
Renouncing the damn citizenship could well be the best move. Singapoor is not a country, nor a home. It is just a corporation ran by execs only interested in money, that happens to be in a city.
After he renounces his citizenship and becomes an Indonesian, perhaps he may become MORE welcomed by the damned execs running this corporation.
Who’s complaining about the talent-drain from Singapoor?
Who is causing it, day in day out?
I think the reason he is not getting a job is deeper than just because interviewers find him a threat because of his masters degree.
First off I have worked in Indonesia before on a 6 mth posting. The pace of life, relax one corner, happy go lucky work culture is really very different from Singapore. Employers may be concern that after 7 years there, he cannot adapt to our work pace.
His academic qualification mismatch his career as well. People with masters at 48 yrs old usually will be senior management or at least department head. Yet his current salary only entry level manager. This may create impression that he is just a mediocre performer that’s why career never advance.
The competition in his job hunting might come mainly from locals than FT. Using his current salary as benchmark, he could be competing for junior level jobs where a lot of masters / bachelor grads in their late 20s or early 30s are also applying for. This makes it tough since a lot of companies prefer people with the potential & time to move up to senior levels in future.
Another thing I find it strange is after working so long and drawing relatively good pay by Indonesian standards, he does not have enough savings to start a small business in Indonesia w/o renouncing citizenship to get CPF? I know of people who went over to Indonesia / Malaysia to start small business with capital from 5k to 30k. That’s not a lot of savings to ask for a 48 yr old guy…
The jobless rate of older workers aged 40 and above is not going to change for the better.Singapore bosses/employers are not going to be sympathetic in employing older workers,instead they will squeeze the older workers matter-of-fact whenever opportunity arises.
All the tripartite alliance also is a toothless guideline if there is no enforcement by the Govt.After so much hoo-ha about fair employment practices by the Govt,we are back to square one.Anyway,who cares ? who listens ? They will only listen to your cries for help during the nine days before polling day.
48 yr old guy no savings? Spending beyond your means for many years eh?
Ah Tim eh, how long uh you think la, YOUR saving can last?
My job can still “tahaan” because many Singapoalians (correct spelling or not huh?) still owe Ah Long money because so many master degree out of jobs (i so lucky! so they call me lucky A Long!)
If i no job 1 day because government so good ya, can loan me some money or not? Dun bluff me ya, you writing so good i read already know you keep many many saving for future la.
It was mentioned Mr Edmund was earning $67k per year for seven years. And he was living in a low cost country. I assume he also has a HDB flat which he bought on the cheap, and which was earning rent all this time. If he cannot save at least $140k in the 7 years he was in Indonesia, it is safe to say he was a spendthrift.
I don’t have any sympathy for people who spent beyond their means. Why should the government use my tax money to bail them out? While I was using a 4-year old Nokia phone, these guys probably were changing iPhones every 6 months. While I was walking 1km to the nearest MRT, these guys were driving cars on a $3k salary.
@Tim
That was what struck me as odd as well. Unless Edmund is trying to set up a large scale capital intensive business that he needs to construct factory, buy machines or import technology, SGD50k max should be enough for most individual start ups in Indonesia.
For someone who was drawing a Singapore pay while living in Indonesia for 7 years, it’s not a good sign that he’s got no savings and need to resort to renouncing citizenship to take out his pensions.
@Johnson. 50k for any startup is peanuts. I have done enough startups in my life to know. I would really suggest you go to places that hire freelancers and you will see that a lot of pinoys, indians and even mainlander chinese are asking for USD $20 per hour upwards for work. Inflation and easy liquidity has caused a lot of problems for everyone running businesses right now. Honestly, if you are a start up and you are using only 2k a month, at most you can last 24 months.
@Tim. Have you considered the fact that savings can run out? 67k x 7 < 500k. How much savings do you expect him to have?
I used to give this analogy to people back in the early 2000s
Let's assume you retire at 60 and live until 80.
Let's assume you need 2k a month and you are married.
So basically you need 24k to run your family household a year. Multiple that by 20 years, you would need 480k.
Now lets assume you put aside 10k for yourself each year for medical. And lets assume you put 10k aside for your significant other for medical. That works out to 20k a year. Multiple that by 20 years. You would need 400k.
Total would be 880k.
Now let's see what inflation has done this past few years. Go to 7-11 and take a look at a price of coke. The last time I saw a coke in 7-11 for a pet bottle, it was close to $2.5 to almost $3! 2 years ago, you could probably get away with $1.5. So basically in 2 years, the inflation has doubled! Now, let's assume you double your inflation every two years from here on out, in 20 years, you need 880k x 10 = 8.8 Million!
Don't even consider saving that sum. I am sure you would not be able to save it. So instead of saying that others do not have savings, really you should sit down and see if you yourself can survive in this rat race in Singapore.
Strange that @Fredie thinks all Masters degree holder will surely become senior level management or department heads. If that is so, you will find top brand companies stuffed with senior managers and even fewer junior executives.
That depends on when the master degree was acquired in the different times of /her career and even then, the brand of your master degree and relevance is important.
Perhaps you are someone who works in a government board and hail from an elitist school, then most probably you were already given fast track career path by virtue of your academic results and least likely from your actual performance. People in private companies on the other hand compete based on work performance more than school results.
@Max – There is no need to get personal and make insinuations of govenrment elitism.
All I did was raised a few possible reasons why the author might be having a hard time getting job.
As is most cases I find, the writer’s predicament seems to result from a combination of bad government policy, bad luck, poor decisions and insufficient long term planning.
What type of long term planning are you referring to? Even Tan Tock Seng with all his riches previously, would never imagine that his family is no one these days. Now, let’s take a look at the CK Tang family right now or any of the old rich. Where are they right now? As far as I know even one of Hwa Par’s family is supposedly suppose to like in a 3 room HDB.
Likewise, just because you may think you may know it all right now, are you sure YOUR FAMILY one day may not end up the same way as mentioned above. Defend your society because one day you or your family when you are the minority will have little say.
@Johnson or is it @Fredie, even then you’re both one and the same writer. The shifty use of names unmask an underlying lack of conviction of viewpoints.
You have unwittingly insinuated the government as elitist, for which you should be applauded for originality. I merely commented that a writer as yourself may have hailed from an elitist school (I admit to be in error after reading your reply).
Finally your analysis does no justice to anyone as all seem to be in blame – government policies, fate (luck), and the unemployed.
Strange proposition; renounce citizenship because of no jobs? If U can find a job somewhere, there is no need to renounce your SC. If U cannot find a job, renouncing you SC does not help either.
I wonder why not all, or most of, the unemployed PMETs form a political party, and campaign on a platform to champion (of care, job provision and citizenry rights). Afterall, i)they are academically qualified ii)potentially leaders-to-be iii)the MPs’ job pays well and iv)candidates with tertiary qualification generally are more acceptable to the electorate.
Good luck
Excellent idea, and advice!
I have been jobless for the past 3 months after being retrenched by the company I served loyally for almost 2 decades. I have been doing a temp job in Shenton Way for 1/5 of my last drawn pay over the past 3 weeks. I can tell you that the Central Business District is flooded with Caucasian, Filipino, Mainalnd Chinese & Indian nationals who are PMEs in their 20s, 30s & 40s. Some even look like they are in their 50s. Why are so many S’poreans in that age group out of work while these foreigners walk around in their ties & power suits? What the heck is the PAP doing to help local PMEs? Absolutely NOTHING!
People who criticise this PMET for not being able to save money in the past years, why anyhow renounce SG citizenship, blah blah …. may not have considered the legal reasons why he is thinking of doing it.
Many of the Asian countries around S’pore have strict laws against foreigners owning businesses and/or land. E.g.1. you cannot own LAND in Thailand, but can buy a condo or strata house with no land rights. E.g.2. Foreigners cannot have majority equity in businesses in Indonesia, which GLCs like Singtel found out to their (and also taxpayers’) costs. Now DBS also facing problems in Indo becoz of this law.
So this PMET wanting to become Indo citizen is merely to facilitate business and/or land owning, as he sees better future in Indo to pursue such business ventures there compared to S’pore.
Edmund I spent many years in the private sector and more recently in the civil service. I too am unemployed and I am trying to look at creating my own training business. With your qualification and practical experience, approach the polys and private schools to be a part time trainer in logistics. This may offer you some new avenues to explore.
Good luck
Shan
Hi People,
I agree with Edmund on the phenomenon that is happening at CBD. I myself has worked in and around that area and I concur with Edmund’s observations. I dont wish to say further on this topic. All I can say is that working in CBD taught my one thing – it hardened my views on foreigners and I’ve become a frustrated and filled-with- anguish wreck.
The govt is known to just pay lip service to matters dear to our hearts. Let’s not waste time making our voices heard. Let’s form our own support groups and start helping ourselves and fellow Singaporeans. Any ideas out there?
By the way, PMETS in their 40s are not old. In fact, in my view, they are at their prime! (I’m in my 30s)
NO ONE OWE US A JOB. WE NEED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILTY FOR OUR FUTURE AND LIFE.
I will renounce my citizenship when I get my other citizenship where else in 2 years time…meanwhile I want to see what our country and government has done for our people. It’s the reality of life! I’m not ungrateful but I’m disappointed with all the policies and unjust environment that is going on all these time and nobody says anything until lately. I’m afraid it’s too late for Singaporeans to be Singaporeans anymore…it doesn’t feel like home anymore…this is the truth! Look everywhere you turn…I lost out in many ways…my career my family and my environment. The thing is I want to feel my identity as a Singaporean…I’m a foreigner in my own land and that hurts! I want it all back and if I don’t…there’s nothing to say anymore…
Hi, i will b giving up my citizenship soon too. 10 years ago, i made the decision to get out of Sg – i applied for all the countries that are handing out PR. Before that, i made a few Plan B, C, D in the event – i cannot get out of Sg. These plans are based on my Swot analysis – 1 i think is suitable might be import / Export related given your depth of experience, knowlege & contact. I have friends that are wildly sucessful and the worse of the lot is doing around $75k annually. I just takes a little smart which i think all Sgean r blessed with.
Thinking of renouncing citizenship before my boy becomes 18. move on to malaysia, Indo, if not China, when at least we are all Asians. And then perhaps return to Singapore as Foreign Talent, and get job easier.
How about ex-Singaporeans who want to come back to Singapore on Employment Pass and then reaapply for PR and Citizenship. How are they treated?
“I have a Indonesian wife and recently the Indonesian government has make it easier for foreigners to apply for citizenship if they marry Indonesian women.”
Most countries are doing the same as Indonesia giving citizenship only to those who marry their locals.
Here, in Sinkapoor we are opening our legs wide open for any Tim, Dick and Hairy into this small little red hole.
Isn’t this business similar or surpass that of Geylang?
The formula here is something like this:
Worker = Pros
Company = Pimp
System = Brothel
Older workers will soon be kicked out by the Pimps simply because the system allows free flow of younger supplies from any part of the world.
Please don’t write in acronyms without specifying! What is a PMET?!?!?
The government treats local Singaporeans like shit so that they can emigrate, and then they will dilute the votes with new citizens that they treat so well… You guys should remain Singaporean but work overseas… don’t let them win!
Hi Gilbert,
I run a company and I employ Singaporeans older than 48. I have no problem with this. If Edmund is interested, he can contact me. We have offices in Singapore and Indonesia. For his information, we are in the marine and offshore industry.
Best Regards,
SK