Essential, or not?

The Sunday Times asks some 1,000 respondents which are the jobs that are most crucial in keeping Singapore going during a pandemic, and also how much more they will pay for essential services so that workers in the sector may get a wage boost.

The survey’s list of the top five non-essential jobs caused a stir. Telemarketers, social media managers, PR specialists and business consultants all rank as disposable roles at a time of crisis. And at the top of the list is artists — writers, actors, painters, dancers, musicians, composers, creatives. Outside of this survey, the world could not disagree more.

In an Instagram post, Singapore comedian Rishi Budhrani makes the excellent point that it’s artists who give us so much of what is sustaining us through lockdown: Netflix documentaries, TV box sets, books and — not at all least — music.

The Sunday Times soon responded to the criticism of the poll and published the methodology behind its survey.