Wednesday March 18, 2009

Singapore : jobs in steep decline, net employment outlook drops 99%

This article belongs to the Singapore recession watch story arc.

channelnewsasia.com :

According to a survey of 636 employers by Manpower Staffing Services on hiring expectations, just 7% expect to up headcount but 50% anticipate a decrease. Year-on-year, employers reported a "very steep decline" of 99 percentage points in net employment outlook - derived by taking the percentage of those anticipating more hiring and subtracting from this the percentage expecting a decrease in employment. The bleakest prospects for jobseekers appears to be in the transportation and utilities sector, with the private education industry close behind. Interestingly, the finance, insurance and real estate sector posted the least pessimistic employment outlook, perhaps because hiring expectations have hit rock bottom and plateaued. At the other end of the spectrum is the transport and utilities sector, which includes logistics and warehousing companies that have been hard hit by the collapse in world trade.

- Net employment outlook dropping 99%. Even amidst the sea of bad news out there, that really grabs some attention, doesn't it? As for the private education sector, it seems that the smaller, "less branded" ones are under quite a bit of pressure at the moment, with the larger ones still getting a more than healthy influx of students. Especially with the Singapore government's SPUR grants and so on, pumping over S$600 million into retraining workers to try to help the retrenched ones acquire new skills to try to get another job.

This is not just another recession. Even the traditionally defensive sectors I have mentioned earlier, such as education, healthcare and utilities, are under some pressure here. These are extraordinary times, and we will see more and more extraordinary measures.

See also :

1. Singapore, Taiwan GDP may shrink 10-11% in 2009 : CLSA
2. Not just another recession : Singapore NODX exports collapse 34.8% in Jan 2009 in largest fall ever
3. Singapore GDP contracted annualized 16.4% in Q4 2008 on worsening recession
4. MM Lee Kuan Yew : Singapore GDP may contract 10% in 2009; retail sales fall most in decade

(2009-03-18 19:15:02 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

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