As much as an economy is built by big businesses and visionary start-ups, it’s also shaped
by the independent workers who contribute to it every day.
Here’s my studio that’s open for all, I actually used to busk here.
So when the coronavirus pandemic emerged earlier this year, sending markets into a tailspin
and disrupting most aspects of daily life, freelancers were hard hit.
We saw a drop in sales of about 80% or more.
That forced many of them to get creative to find new ways of working.
I’m in Singapore speaking to freelancers in some of the economy’s hardest-hit sectors
to hear how they’ve done just that.
Freelancing during this period of time has actually taken on new meaning.
Independent work has been evolving fast in recent years.
The popularity of digital platforms and apps such as Fiverr, Uber and Grab has transformed
the dynamics of the workforce, with more people opting to do freelance work.
In 2019, independent workers accounted for nearly 9% of the workforce in Singapore,
or 211,000 residents.
That’s an increase from around 200,000 in 2016.
Of them, more than 80% were doing freelance work as their primary job, or 7.5% of the workforce.
But the day of reckoning has arrived as the pandemic has cast a spotlight on the gig economy.
Job security has always been a concern in the gig economy.
The measures aimed at curbing the coronavirus have altered consumption and travel patterns,
fueling the volatility faced by independent workers.
The impact of the pandemic isn’t evenly felt across the gig economy.
While demand for logistic and food delivery services surged during nationwide lockdowns,
others, especially those in the arts and hospitality space, saw business dry up almost entirely.
That was the case for singer-songwriter, Jill-Marie Thomas.
Just call me Jill, just call me Jill.
The former national talent search show winner quit her marketing job in 2018
to pursue performing full-time.
But when lockdowns crippled the country’s flourishing entertainment scene,
her dreams were almost dashed.
I was really working very hard and getting a lot of gigs, finally getting the traction that I wanted,
and inquiries were coming in and stuff like that, and then boom.
Ilostmygig.sg, one of several sites launched internationally to support creative workers,
estimates more than $21 million in income and almost 9,000 gigs have been lost at the
end of August in Singapore as a result of Covid-19.
As social restrictions put an end to live public performances, governments have been
stepping in to help cushion the impact.
In March, the government unveiled a $6,500 pay-out for freelance workers, on top of various support packages.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s National Arts Council partnered with streaming platform Bigo Live in May
to launch SGLivehouse, a series of virtual gigs to help buskers like Jill transition to online performances.
They sent equipment over.
We even had a tutorial on how to stream and what we can and cannot do as well, and what
we can do to improve our streams and stuff.
So it was really helpful, and yeah, from then on, I continued streaming.
This platform has always been here, this online platform, but with what we’re going through,
it’s just been an eye-opener for me to realize that actually, it’s not only this but I
can also do this, and I can do both.
The event is one of several initiatives rolled out during the pandemic to keep independent
workers going.
For instance, when lockdowns threatened to uproot Singapore’s iconic food markets,
known locally as hawker centers, the government worked with stall owners to find new online
revenue streams.
Ming Han Tan is a second-generation hawker seller who helps out at his parents’ traditional
dried cuttlefish and biscuits stall at Chinatown Complex located in the heart of the city.
The only memories I have were tasting it as a child and falling in love with my dad’s biscuit
and now making it myself.
The 34-year-old saw business drop as much as 80% due to the outbreak as people opted
to stay home, prompting him to look for new ways of working.
During the Covid, we had to look at new avenues such as doing delivery, advertising and marketing
on Facebook, social media platforms, and also using digital payments.
In June, the government launched Hawkers Go Digital, an initiative to help more independent stallholders
adopt technologies such as e-payments to keep apace with changing consumer demands.
As of August, nearly a third of 18,000 hawker stalls in Singapore, or 5,400 hawkers,
have adopted digital payments, a figure authorities hope to raise to 100% by June 2021.
There’s a huge percentage of stalls that have adopted this SG Digital, SG Payment service
and platform and they have started using them and found the benefits towards themselves.
It is a win-win situation for both consumers and also for hawkers and stallholders.
While some hawkers are concerned about transaction fees for digital payments kicking in from 2023,
the scheme ties in with Singapore’s wider ambitions to future-proof its traditional industries.
Other initiatives to bolster demand for hawkers include in-person and virtual food tours
to encourage more people to visit local markets.
Ming Han says he hopes such efforts will help breathe new life into the hawker trade.
We hope to bring more businesses back to this whole entire Chinatown Complex and to keep it alive
because it is a sunset industry, and we do not hope that, because of this Covid,
it continues to go down.
Although the shift to digital has been a major learning curve for many independent workers,
it has also been a boon for others who have made it their business to help with the transition.
After being retrenched from a managerial position in 2016, Sandra Tan forged a new career
as a digital marketer.
Today, the freelance consultant is advising businesses and individuals on how to set up
their online presence.
I would dare to say it’s almost a basic skill now for everyone to be able to brand themselves online.
But this year, interest in her advisory services surged as nationwide lockdowns and mass retrenchments
prompted more people to look for ways to promote themselves and their businesses online.
When the pandemic came this year, there was a huge demand for that.
Everybody wanted to have a slice of knowledge to know what exactly is digital marketing?
What is social media? And how they can beef up their presence online.
That includes helping people upskill and diversify.
In this pandemic, we must remember that we need the three lives.
And these three lives are very important: Live engagement, live experience and, of course,
live entertainment.
Since March alone, Sandra has coached some 500 people.
In particular, her work has focused on the recently retrenched and clients in the hard-hit
retail and hospitality sectors, who she says have had to reinvent themselves almost entirely.
One of the key things, especially for the hotel industry to realize, was that apart from rooms,
they have to look at their ancillary services.
It could be an e-butler service or definitely online delivery.
And that took them with a little bit of a shock because we never hear of hotels delivering food
So they had to change their mindsets.
Even as the pandemic takes a toll on the global economy, it has acted as a catalyst for change
and created new opportunities for freelancers learning to adapt to the new norm.
That could spell good news for fast-adapting workers like Ming Han, who thinks the shifts
he has made in recent months will position him, and his industry, for the long-term.
I’m very hopeful for Singapore’s hawker culture, and I’m part of it.
The whole culture has been around since the birth of Singapore and it will rise.
It is a different chapter as compared to previous.
We have to innovate and be adaptable to changes around, and with Covid it is a good stimulus
to all hawkers, especially.
And Jill?
Well, even as her industry undergoes fundamental changes, she won't be letting go of her dreams
anytime soon.
I definitely want to keep doing this online thing.
Slowly, slowly, I think, for me, I’m starting to get gigs and everything, and it is promising.
So I do hope that I do get more gigs and more enquiries and be able to work towards my other
dreams of owning my own place and stuff like that.