SINGAPORE: With the US tariffs set to hit businesses, jobs and workers in Singapore, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) will support the country’s economic resilience task force to enable workers to "seize new opportunities in a changed world", said secretary-general Ng Chee Meng on Thursday (May 1).

With the US tariffs having caused "much anxiety and volatility", Singapore’s 2025 growth forecast has been revised downwards to 0 to 2 per cent, Mr Ng said.

He noted that unemployment rates have also edged up in the first quarter of this year.

As a result, youth entering the workforce are concerned about job availability when they graduate. Workers are also concerned about job security, with more of them likely to experience job transitions.

NTUC will do its best to support the Singapore economic resilience task force, Mr Ng added.

The union will refresh its job security council – which helped displaced workers find other jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic – because "good jobs are the best security for workers". 

Among the responsibilities of the revamped council will be pushing for more business transformation and workforce training through company training committees (CTCs), and deepening efforts to help workers "future-proof" their careers through upskilling, career guidance and mentorship. 

It will also enhance the union’s ability to "match workers into good jobs", with stronger hiring networks and artificial intelligence-powered tools like a virtual career coach, Mr Ng said. 

NTUC will also leverage closer collaborations with tripartite partners and organisations like the Institute for Human Resource Professionals.

It will form cluster CTCs to "drive transformation at the industry level", and partner Queen Bee companies to "catalyse industry-wide change and uplift workers across the value chain", he added. 

The SkillsFuture Queen Bees are industry leaders who take on a leading role to champion skills development in organisations, particularly for small and medium enterprises.

SETBACK IN 2020 WAS "HUMBLING"

In his May Day rally speech, Mr Ng also shared that his NTUC journey has taught him what it means to "persevere on". 

"In 2020, I felt that I had let all of you down. Dealing with that setback, in turn, has been humbling," he said.

Mr Ng was part of the People’s Action Party (PAP) team which lost the Sengkang Group Representation Constituency (GRC) to the Workers’ Party (WP) in the 2020 General Election. 

The WP team won with 52.12 per cent of the vote. It made Sengkang the second-ever GRC to be won by an opposition party, after Aljunied GRC.

"But it has also taught me many good lessons," Mr Ng added. "I have learnt more deeply that failing does not equate to failure. It is not our losses that define us; it is how we continue to press on and do our utmost that counts."

Mr Ng is up against WP’s Andre Low in the 2025 election, as PAP’s candidate for the new Jalan Kayu Single Member Constituency (SMC) that was carved out of Ang Mo Kio GRC after the latest electoral boundaries review. 

Concluding his speech, the labour chief called for the union to rally and unite for better lives and livelihoods of workers, a brighter future for children and a stronger Singapore.