NTUC’s first job security chief has two worries: fresh graduates and older PMEs

AI generated

SINGAPORE – Two groups of workers have become the focus for NTUC’s first job security chief Caryn Lim, about a year into the role: fresh graduates and older professionals, managers and executives (PMEs).

For young people starting their careers, she is worried that this group – which she calls “first-jobbers” – will become discouraged and lose hope in work. For workers over 50, particularly PMEs, Lim is concerned about their ability to bounce back from retrenchment, or to find jobs that match their previous salaries.

To help them, NTUC needs to beef up its support on the individual level, said Lim in an interview with The Straits Times.

This includes doing more with its industry training officers – who work with companies to develop and implement jobs, skills and capability upgrading in line with business and industry transformation.

But the labour movement also needs to do more to with technology like artificial intelligence to reach more workers, and to this end is revamping its AI career coach, she said.

On a company level, the unions are also working to scale up company training committees (CTCs), said Lim, who is also NTUC assistant secretary-general.

These committees bring together a company’s management, workers and union representatives to figure out what skills employees need as businesses evolve, and can apply for an NTUC grant to fund such projects.

The labour movement is looking at how to broaden them from delivering projects in individual companies to doing so across sectors, she said.

It is also working with leading companies to see how CTCs can put in place “prototypes” to implement solutions to common problems within industries, she added.

CTCs, which exist in around 3,800 companies, will be a key tool in Singapore’s strategy to combat AI-related job disruption.

At May Day this year, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced that the Government will work with the labour movement to scale these committees up as part of its promise “protect every worker” as AI disrupts the economy.

These are some of Lim’s aims in her role overseeing the NTUC’s institutions that work on people’s job prospects. This includes the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), as well as its job security directorate.

Lim, who was formerly e2i chief, started the new role in July 2025. She is the first person to hold the position, the official title of which is Chief Job Security.

The role is meant to coordinate NTUC’s coverage of the whole “job life cycle” including internships, first jobs, progression within a job, career switching, and re-entry into jobs, she said.

She also works on coordinating NTUC’s engagement with employers on transformation, wages and employment conditions, and workforce upgrading.

Her attention so far has focused on groups who are facing more difficulty as the economy changes, amid an uptick in retrenchments.

Preliminary data showed that in the second quarter of 2026, 4,500 workers were retrenched – up from 3,830 in the first quarter. It was the highest quarterly figure since the final quarter of 2020, when there were 5,640 retrenchments.

When asked about the capacity of NTUC’s systems to place workers in light of higher retrenchments, NTUC said e2i placed 32,000 workers in 2024 and about 40,000 in 2025.

PMEs as a whole are finding it more challenging after retrenchment, said Lim.

The profile of Singapore’s workforce is changing, and there are more PMEs compared to the past where there were more rank and file employees, Lim said.

PMEs and technicians formed 64.2 per cent of Singapore’s workforce in 2025, up from about 53 per cent in 2015.

It is comparatively easier for a rank and file worker to find another job if they are retrenched, Lim said, as the skill sets in demand do not vary much between roles.

But the nature of PME jobs has changed over time and more rapidly.

Raising the example of the information and communication technology sector, Lim said there are many jobs still available but those that have been retrenched could have skill sets that may no longer be as relevant.

Lim is also concerned about younger workers looking for their first job.

Youth unemployment has come to the fore in recent years amid concern that AI is replacing work junior employees once did.

Statistics from the Ministry of Manpower said younger workers below 30 saw their unemployment rate rise from 5.8 per cent in December 2025 to 6.2 per cent in March 2026.

MOM said the increase among youths aged below 25 likely reflects more frequent moves between short-term vacation jobs rather than a broad-based lack of job opportunities.

Being discouraged at a young age does not bode well for one’s future, said Lim. “You need to go in with a certain optimism that it will be okay. And even if my first job is not my ideal job, along the way, Singapore has enough opportunities for me to transit and move on,” she said.

It is very important for the youth to see their future in Singapore and to believe they will be able to afford homes and raise families, rather than to fear job loss and hence decide not to do so, said Lim.

Moving forward, Singaporeans may have to rethink what job security means, said Lim.

It is increasingly not about staying in one job forever, she said. “It is about being able to find the right job for you at the right time.”