Qn: "In the fourth quarter of 2004, Singapore's unemployment rose to 3.7%"
Discuss whether supply-side policies are the best way of achieving full employment in Singapore. [25]
Hi all. My essay outline is as follows:
<intro: define key terms like unemployment and full employment>
<account for the 3.7% ie 1 reason could be due to the spill over effect from SARS which causes a decrease in AD via C and I. This causes cyclical unemployment.>
my teacher said that there are two reasons that gave rise to the 3.7%, but so far the only obvious reason i can think of is SARS as mentioned above. I've tried to google for the second reason but the results were not conclusive. Can anyone help me on this? btw, the second reason is suppose to result in structural unemployment.
<talk about SSP and evaluate>
<followed by 2 other policies (fiscal and exchange rate)>
Thanks guys.
Hallo,
structural unemployment is about not being sufficiently skilled or not skilled in the right industry. Perhaps we could mention that with the rise of China, many labour intensive industries moved out of Singapore to countries with cheaper workers. Following on was the intro of higher skilled industries, like the biomedical industry which the govt was strongly pushing (Biopolis).
And perhaps we could include frictional unemployment as well? Retrenched workers seeking employment would likely want to secure benefits as good as their previous jobs, resulting in a mismatch between supply and demand.