PM Wong's promise of 'no jobless growth' sets stage for more labour interventions

It could represent shift in how Govt will deal with labour market in age of Al

- Ng Wei Kai Correspondent

(ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI)

Anxieties about artificial intelligence dominated the debate last week on Singapore’s Budget 2026, which outlined a national push to adopt the technology across all segments of society.

The push received cross-party support as no MP from the ruling party or opposition Workers’ Party argued against it.

But many lawmakers fleshed out scenarios where various segments of Singapore’s workers could be left behind or made unemployed by Al adoption.

Some raised concerns that AI would automate away jobs traditionally done by fresh graduates, creating a “broken rung” in work experience, while others said they were concerned about mid-career workers whose jobs might also see competition from the technology.

All in all, MPs covered almost every segment of society and raised fears that they could lose out in the coming AI push, as well as concerns about AI’s possible environmental impacts.

Their fears are well founded and reflect a deep and growing global anxiety surrounding the technology.

There is still a lack of worldwide consensus on whether the technology will actually improve lives, although local statistics on worker displacement in Singapore have not yet raised alarms.

On Feb 23, a day before the debate began, a post on newsletter platform Substack went viral for its depiction of a doomsday dystopia caused by artificial intelligence. It triggered stock selloffs of some of the companies it named, contributing to a small dip in the US’ S&P 500 Index that day.

The authors from Citrini Research had modelled a scenario where unchecked proliferation of AI across the US economy would cause rampant unemployment by 2028 while continuing to grow the economy overall and creating what the authors called “ghost GDP (gross domestic product)”, or economic growth with no actual people involved.