The SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, the SGUnited Skills, SGUnited Traineeships and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programmes, will get an additional SGD$5.4 billion. This will support the hiring of 200,000 locals in 2021 and will provide up to 35,000 traineeship and training opportunities.
The SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package was first launched in May 2020 to provide 100,000 opportunities to help Singaporean workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, nearly 76,000 people have been placed into jobs, traineeships, attachments and skills training opportunities as of end-December 2020. The initial allocation was SGD$3 billion.
The bulk of the additional funds will go to extending the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) for seven months.
Under the JGI, companies that hire local workers from September 2020 to February 2021 will receive a subsidy of 25% of the first SGD$5,000 of their gross monthly salaries. For all hires under this period, companies will get up to 12 months of wage support. The local worker must be earning at least SGD$1,400 a month. The baseline JGI adjustment factor was August 2020. i.e. the subsidy will apply to all additional local headcount after August 2020.
For example, company A has 2 local staff and wants to hire additional local staff. This new local hire, aged 30 years old, is given a salary of SGD$4,000. He starts employment on the 1st of November 2020. The company will receive a subsidy of $1,000 from 1st November 2020 to 31st October 2021.
If the company retrenches one of its existing local staff in September 2020 and hires this new staff in November 2020, it will not be eligible for the subsidy as the number of local staff in August 2020 is 2 and the number of local staff in November is also 2. There is no growth.
This scheme will be extended to all hires until end-September 2021.
Under the enhanced JGI scheme, companies that hire mature local workers (aged 40 and above), persons with disabilities and ex-offenders from September 2020 to February 2021 will receive a subsidy of 50% of the first SGD$6,000 (from March 2021 onwards) of their gross monthly salaries. For all hires under this period, companies will get up to 18 months of wage support.
For example, company A has 2 local staff and wants to hire additional mature local staff. This new local hire, aged 42 years old, is given a salary of SGD$6,000. He starts employment on the 1st of March 2021. The company will receive a subsidy of $3,000 from 1st March 2021 to 30th November 2022. The total wage support comes up to an amount of SGD$54,000 for this hire.
The other programmes under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills package will be extended by a year until March 2022.
The SGUnited Traineeship programme will be extended to support fresh job seekers from the 2021 graduating cohort.
The stipend for ITE traineeship positions will be raised to a range of S$1,600 to S$1,800, from S$1,100 to S$1,500.
The stipend for diploma traineeship positions will be raised to a range of S$1,700 to S$2,100, from S$1,300 to S$1,800.
The allowance for university traineeships remains unchanged.
The maximum duration of each traineeship will be reduced from 9 to 6 months.
If you need assistance with regards to applying for SGUnited Jobs and Skills package, you may contact us at [email protected]. Our company does assist companies in grant and subsidies applications.
When in doubt, seek legal advice or consult an experienced ACRA Filing Agent.
Yours Sincerely,
The editorial team at Singapore Secretary Services
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