Housewives / Retirees - Start looking for a job

HOUSEWIVES and retirees should roll up their sleeves and prepare to rejoin the workforce to help their families cope with what may be a prolonged recession.

That stark piece of advice came from Prof Tan Khee Giap, associate professor and co-director of the Asia Research Centre at Nanyang Technological University, yesterday.

Prof Tan told a forum organised by the Nanyang Business School on the financial crisis that Singapore is likely to face a U-shaped recovery - an extended period of slow growth through next year before things pick up in 2010.

This would be in contrast to the quick V-shaped rebound that the country has experienced in previous recessions.

But jobs created by the two new integrated resorts should help to cushion the economy.

Prof Tan suggested that housewives and retirees should take advantage of employment opportunities in the resorts, which are expected to have about 20,000 vacancies to fill by the time they come online in early 2010.

In fact, the first hiring exercise for Marina Bay Sands yesterday was met with an enthusiastic response from exactly these groups of people, who enquired about jobs ranging from receptionist to security supervisor.

Government agencies should work to encourage those people not employed back into the working community by, for example, providing additional childcare services, said Prof Tan.

However, the full economic impact of the two resorts, which are expected to create a total of 60,000 jobs including in affiliated sectors when fully operational, may not really kick in till the second half of 2010, he said.

Singapore became one of the first countries to enter a technical recession after two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Prof Tan predicted that growth for the full year will not even hit the Government's revised forecast of 3 per cent and that expansion next year will clock in at zero per cent.

He said that despite tremendous efforts to diversify Singapore's economy in manufacturing and services, the synchronised slowdowns in both of the Republic's major markets - the United States and Europe - have still affected Singapore's trade-sensitive economy and will therefore make a recovery difficult.

Once the resorts are open, he said, the 20,000 jobs will come at just the right time to boost recovery.

Prof Tan was joined by other experts from the Nanyang Business School, who spoke on various aspects of the crisis.

These included how the blanket guarantee of bank deposits may hurt healthy banks and how stricter Government regulation to protect investors from risky products is needed.

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