Casinos
Why the scaledown?
Latest manpower need for two casinos now said to be 20,000, not 35,000 as first stated; why the discrepancy, asks Andrew Loh, Online Citizen.
Aug 18, 2008

35,000 jobs - or 20,000 jobs?
Andrew Loh / Deputy Editor

In his National Day Rally speech in Chinese, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was quoted by Channel NewsAsia as having said the following about the number of jobs the two Integrated Resorts (IRs) would create:

The two IRs will need another 20,000 workers. They will not be able to recruit Singaporeans to fill all these positions. In fact, they would not have decided to invest here had we required them to recruit only Singaporeans. (Link)

This is quite a turnaround from the 35,000 jobs which Singaporeans were told would be created by the two IRs. In fact, in Parliament on 18 April 2005, Prime Minister Lee himself cited the figure of 35,000:

Altogether MTI estimates that the two IRs will create about 35,000 jobs, counting jobs within the IRs, plus spinoffs throughout the economy. (Link)

This figure of 35,000 jobs was repeated by then-NTUC Chief Lim Boon Heng the next day in Parliament, 19 April 2005:

So this is not an easy decision, but when there are 35,000 jobs, I cannot say no. (Link)

So, the obvious question one would ask is: Why the discrepancy? What happened to the 15,000 jobs (35,000 – 20,000)? Was the projection wrong?

Comments (excerpts)

By inspir3d
Sharp observation.
something worth investigating indeed

By RS
Omg! Did someone give our PM a wrong script? Maybe there is a one real figure afterall…..

Currently Spared
35,000 “counting jobs within the IRs, plus spinoffs throughout the economy.”
20,000 “two IRs will need another 20,000 workers”
15,000 in spinoffs?

Tan Ah Kow
35,000 or 20,000, these are just guessitmations anyway.
The real question is how did they work out the number in the first place? What were their assumptions?

guojun
No lah. they are counting on our forgetfulness…

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/08/35000-jobs-or-20000-jobs/