Part 4/10:
Adding further pressure is the ongoing labor shortage, a crisis worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, employers could easily find workers through online job portals, with hundreds of applicants for each posting. Today, the pool of job seekers has shrunk significantly, with only about 30 applicants per vacancy. The exclusion of foreign workers from government subsidy schemes has further constrained labor supply, particularly in labor-intensive sectors like manufacturing and F&B.