Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Bringing Employers and Job Seekers updates on Singapore Employment News. Productivity related Tech Toys & Web 2.0 Sites will also be covered. Singapore's 1st freelance / casual / part time / contract job blog. Visit http://www.jorbb.com to join today!
Channel NewsAsia is reporting that Singapore civil workers are receiving a .5 per cent bonus plus an additional bonus of at least S$100. This bonus is due to steady economic growth in Singapore which was up an additional 1.3% from the last quarter of 2007. The National Wage Council, a division of the Ministry of Manpower, is paying higher bonuses to lower wage workers to help them battle inflation and rising costs. The NWC will determine year-end bonuses later in the year. The National Trades Union Congress is satisfied with the bonus structure.
Mikogo.com is a free screen sharing site that allows your invitees to see your screen. You simply set up a meeting, invite up to 10 attendees, they log in with a unique meeting number and instantly they can see your computer screen, allowing you to make free presentations to visitors globally on any topic. You can pass on to another presenter (show someone else's screen), you can pause (cease allowing others to see your screen as you browse through confidential or non-relevant files), and you can allow someone else to take control of YOUR screen, perhaps pointing out a particular item that they have a question about or are an expert on.
The site is fun and easy to use, the download software is free, the interface is intuitive. Mikogo is a great new free business tool site! Follow Jorbb on Twitter and Facebook.
Like other developed nations around the world, Singapore is facing a severe nursing shortage. This shortage is caused primarily by an aging population and because nurses comprise the largest number of healthcare workers, according to The Singapore Nursing Journal. Additionally, nurses are called upon to learn new, high-tech methods making the role increasingly challenging.
This represents great opportunities for new nursing graduates, with 80% of Ngee Ann Polytechnics nursing graduates securing jobs before they've graduated. These graduates are taking part in a new degree program started in 2005 to combat the nursing shortage. Follow Jorbb on Twitter and Facebook.
Are you on a budget and cannot afford customised services? BrandDoozie has launched a Flash-based tool for SMEs / Startups that want to create marketing materials without hiring a designer. The tool’s 3-step process leads to branded sales sheets, postcards, business cards, and letterheads that can be downloaded in PDF format, and there are heaps of templates to choose from.
What a big day for low cost ultra portable notebooks. First Michael Dell showed off his "sssh - no one has seen this yet" mini notebook to Gizmodo, and then Engadget got wind of Acer's Aspire One.
So we have OLPC, Asus, MSI, Intel, Packard Bell, HP and now Dell, Acer. Sweet!
A survey of 2007 graduates of National University of Singapore indicates that starting pay rates are on the rise. Additionally, the job market appears strong for these graduates as they all had job offers within six months of graduating, while 80% had an offer before graduating!
NUS's business graduates saw a 13% increase and top earners started at S$10,800 monthly. Most are employed in the areas of finance and banking, energy (including oil), and consumer goods industries.
Graduates from Nanyang Technological University are also doing well. 90% of their graduates secured positions within one month of graduation and some earned more than S$15,000 monthly. Follow Jorbb on Twitter and Facebook.
According to a new study by Dr. Jean-Michel Grandmont published in the International Journal of Economic Theory, higher unemployment insurance boosts the economy. What the study discovered was, even in times of higher unemployment, employers hesitate to cut wages for fear it will decrease performance and productivity. Despite the higher cost of unemployment insurance, employers are not likely to cut wages or reduce hiring. And, with higher benefits, unemployed workers are more likely to continue having reasonable purchasing power, thus bouying the economy and keeping production and productivity up.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry reports that the gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to increase 4-6% for 2008. The first quarter showed a 6.7% increase, up from 5.4% last quarter. The chief factor in the growth has been biomedical manufacturing which recovered from last quarter's downturn. Singapore continues to be affected by other economies including the US, EU and Japan, all of whom have seen earlier economic forecasts moderated.
The MTI rates the economy on a variety of factors including job creation, unemployment rate, productivity, construction, imports/exports and retail sales, among others. Singapore continues to be a leading world economy and is ranked as the world's second freest economy per the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom.
Network World Asia reports that, due to a shortage of IT professionals and increased economic growth, Singapore's IT workers can expect to see salaries rise. According to Richard Talbot, the general manager of IT recruitment strategies at Sapphire Technologies Singapore, those with the experience and skills may find they are able to command higher salaries now.
Due to the increased demand for experienced IT workers, Talbot recommends that employers seek advice from recruiting professionals because it can be difficult to find the proper fit when the job market is so tight. Recruiters build relationships with potential candidates, stay current on salary trends and are trained in innovative sourcing techniques, thus helping employers find the best fit at the best price.
The service sector is driving employment numbers higher in Singapore, reports the Ministry of Manpower. A total of 68,400 new jobs were added during the first quarter, 42,900 of which were in the service sector. Unemployment remained low at 2%.
The service sector has been impacted by increased construction of luxury hotels. These businesses are seeking 100,000 or more new employees in the areas of wait staff, chefs, event planning and administrative staff.
Singapore's inflation rate rose to 7.5% in April, the highest it has been since February of 1982. Transportation, food and housing costs were to blame. External sources are the reason for this, particularly oil prices which rose to a record high of $135 a barrel and are expected to push higher. Additionally, Singapore imports nearly all of it's goods due to a lack of natural resources and agricultural supplies, thus being more easily impacted by other nations' own economic woes.
Singaporeans and other residents are cutting back to help adjust for these rising costs, reducing their transportation and water use as well as eating out. Unfortunately, some charitable organizations are noticing an increase in the number of people seeking free meals. But, there is speculation that this trend will only continue for a few more months and then taper off for the second half of 2008.
The Singapore blogosphere and forums have reported that a local company has been invoicing companies for infringing their patent which implies that "clicking, scrolling or streaming over a visual image to connect with a website or Web page is an infringement", as reported by the Straits Times.
Watch out Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, Flickr, Friendster, Orkut, Twitter, and every other website (with a href'ed images) in the entire WWW.
A SINGAPORE firm has threatened to sue websites that use pictures or graphics to link to another page, claiming it owns the patent for a technology used by millions around the world.
In a move that has come under fire from the online community, VueStar Technologies has sent ‘invoices’ to local website operators asking for thousands of dollars in licensing fees.
The company, which said ‘virtually all websites’ are infringing on its patent, is also planning to take on giants like Mircosoft and Google.
It is a battle that could, at least in theory, upend the Internet, though intellectual property experts have some doubts that VueStar can actually enforce its claims.
The company said it has been awarded a patent here and in several other countries, including Australia, New Zealand and the United States, for the method of ‘locating Web pages by utilising visual images’.
In other words, clicking, scrolling or streaming over a visual image to connect with a website or Web page is an infringement, the company claims on its website.
The technique is the de facto method used to connect websites across the globe, from personal blogs to the biggest search engines.
VueStar managing director Paul Smith said if sites want to keep using images as links, they will have to pay his company - located in a single-unit office at The Adelphi off Coleman Street - between ‘$200′ and ‘millions’ annually.
It is a claim, however, that has its doubters.
Technology and intellectual property lawyer Bryan Tan of Keystone Law Corporation said that while VueStar has been granted a patent, it is an extremely wide one.
In fact, ‘if the patent is allowed to stand, it will probably bring the (Internet) industry to its knees’. And VueStar’s patent may be contested and overturned in court, he said.
The firm has been sending out invoices to Singapore companies since last week asking them to pay up, said Mr Smith. He declined to say how many have gone out, but there have been ‘enough to keep my phone busy’.
Those who do not pay up, warned Mr Smith, face legal action, and his company is ‘highly confident that (a court decision) will be in our favour’.
Mr Alvin Koh, who runs the non-profit Arrowana fish website arofanatics.com, received one of VueStar’s invoices last week for $5,350. He does not intend to pay up and said: ‘I would rather close down the site’.
Mr Smith recognises that Mr Koh’s stand will likely be a popular one, and his firm is already girding up for a public backlash.
‘Website owners are just upset because they never had to pay for it before,’ said Mr Smith.
VueStar will begin enforcing its patent claims in Australia and the US ’soon’, he said, and the firm is also working on invoices for Internet heavyweights like Google and Microsoft.
While governments and charities will need a licence, VueStar will not be asking for payment from these parties, he said.
Mr Tan urged companies to contact their lawyers before ‘paying VueStar anything’.
According to the Manila Standard Today: Singapore executives are estimating as many as 370,000 tourism jobs are available in Singapore and Macau and they are heavily recruiting Filipinos to fill these positions. Edward Liu, managing director of Conference and Exhibition Management Services Pte, says "The Filipinos are the best. Filipinos’ hospitality is known all over the world.”
Due to large hotel expansion in Singapore, at least 70,000 jobs will be available at the 10 to 20 new hotels currently being built and 30, 000 of those will go to just two hotels. Macau is also seeing heavy construction of both hotels and casinos, adding as many as 300,000 new positions in travel and tourism. Filipinos are being recruited for positions like chefs, receptionists, waiters and event organizers.
The Sunday Times reports that the Singapore real estate market for office space is still healthy despite faltering residential properties and property-related stocks. There is a strong demand for office space due to expanding business and limited options and, despite a rise in prices of 32.6 per cent last year, analysts are saying that demand is likely to stay strong through the end of the year or longer. Though office prices have started to stabilize, rents are expected to continue rising until at least 2010, making office real estate a strong investment choice.
There are downsides to the current market, however, including greater risk and difficult in obtaining financing. Banks generally only lend 60 to 70 per cent of office sale price versus 80 to 90 percent of sale price of homes. Buyers cannot use their Central Provident Savings to fund the purchase of office space either.
Overall, it still looks like the commercial real estate market for office space will remain strong for some time.
Backboard is a new Web 2.0 utility that allows a user to get feedback on whatever project they might be working on. Managers can get input on product plans, Web designers can get input on their proposal, students can get feedback on their class projects...
Backboard is a free online tool that allows feedback solicitation on the most common office documents, images, web pages, URL's and free-form text. Once you've loaded your project, a form pops up to invite users to review and provide input, or you can invite them through your own email to your Backboard URL.
At this time, you cannot edit the project in Backboard. If edits are required, you simply upload the newest draft and resolicit input.
A great time saver for reviewing documents, reports etc but I feel that it could do some with markup tools which allow WYSIWYG editing.
Several studies are improving the reputation of the much maligned "nap" especially when it comes to boosting workplace productivity. Entrepeneur Daily quotes a 25 year study from the University of Haifi in Israel that indicates naps taken in the workplace can enhance performance while reducing "crabbiness". Another study from Harvard Medical School points to a 45 minute nap as a means to improve tasks that rely on memory.
An article on Associated Content by Peggy Adamik also quotes a joint study by Harvard University and the University of Athens Medical School that followed participants over six years. Those that took regular naps-30 minutes at least 3 times per week- reduced their risk of dying from heart disease by 37%.
To reap the benefits of these two great findings, some employers are now allowing employees to take short naps at work, providing napping rooms, and in New York City sleep salons like Yelo are providing workers a napping sanctuary.
UnBlockAll.net allows you to enter any website and bypass your networks' firewall / filter to access your favourite websites. "Simply type the address of the web site which you want to open in the field above and hit GO. This will automatically lead you to the destination page. With our service you are guaranteed to be able to login and operatate normally."
Social network security is of current concern to parents and educators and new information from a Singapore poll is adding to the reasons why. "Almost half of the students between the ages of 17 to 25 polled in Singapore are revealing their full contact details" on social networking sites and "30% were adding people they do not know as 'friends'."
Norton Symantec and Hewlett Packard conducted the online poll of 120 students which revealed, among other things, that students are spending approximately 6 hours a day on the Internet and 92% have registered on at least one social networking site (such as MySpace or Facebook).
Phishing attacks are common via the Web and social networking sites make it easier to lure private information from younger users, making such attacks (involving fraud and identify theft) more common. It is important to educate young people on the risks to both their technology, financial and educational information utilizing a security software, but also the risks to their physical selves when revealing their location or contact information.
TrackMyPeople is a great new Web 2.0 tool that allows you to track your employees' time, or your own, for free. It is Web-based, easy to use and provides accurate reporting on project work making it ideal for consultancies and freelancers. It provides graphical reports, automatic backups, is compatible with Windows and Linux (Macintosh is in the works) and has an easy-to-install widget for your desktop.
Easily set up projects and people in the system and produce beautiful productivity reports.
Singapore maintained its position as 2nd most competitive nation as US topped world competitiveness rankings for the 15th straight year.
With its economy showing the signs of weakness and the sub-prime crisis, it will be interesting to see next year's findings, as US economic health is vulnerable at the moment, because of its heavy reliance on the financial sector for corporate profits.
Top 10 Global competitiveness survey rankings - (2007 rankings in parentheses).
1. United States (1) 2. Singapore (2) 3. Hong Kong (3) 4. Switzerland (6) 5. Luxembourg (4) 6. Denmark (5) 7. Australia (12) 8. Canada (10) 9. Sweden (9) 10. Netherlands (8)
The NTUC aims to reach out to 600 companies by December this year to encourage them to implement policies that re-employ older workers.
This will likely benefit some 5,000 workers who are about to reach the retirement age of 62.
The NTUC has reached out to some 430 unionised companies by March this year, urging them to commit to employing older workers beyond the retirement age of 62. At least 15 percent of them have a formalised HR policy on re-employment.
The labour movement said that so far, nearly 4,000 older workers have been re-employed. To ensure that companies do not lose out before Singapore's re-employment legislation comes into effect by 2012, NTUC has put in place a tracking process where it can take stock of the progress of companies in implementing re-employment policies.
The national target for employing older workers aged 55 to 64 is 65 percent. Currently, the figure stands at 56 percent.
Do you face the problem of having clients / friends / family members using different Instant Messengers?
Check out Instan-T, an ALL-IN-ONE client like Adium for Macs. Combine your MSN, GTalk, Yahoo, ICQ, AOL into 1 client and it even allows Video chats between the different clients. There's also a web-based version for those of you with strict Corporate firewalls which block IM ports. By the way, it's FREE!
With more than 4500 words "bought" - the creators of The Big Word Project, Paddy Donnelly and Lee Munroe, want to revamp the way we define words. The Big Word Project lists over two thousand different words (the list is continuously growing) and for the price of one dollar you can associate that specific word with your website or blog. The two creators were interested in different interpretations of words by different individuals, and so the website was created in part to explore and play with the definitions of words. For example, Jorbb has bought some words related to Jorbb.com. With nearly all 291,500 Oxford English Dictionary entries in inventory — plus verb forms, plural nouns, comparatives, superlatives, and American spellings — Donnelly and Munroe could be millionaires very soon.
Finally got to try out the HP 2133 Mini-note at the roadshow at The Cathay. It definately feels a lot more robust than the EEE but at around S$1199, it's not "cheap". A HP user myself, the 2133 has the same feel to the full fledge notebooks - good quality finish with nicely moulded edges. Definately not plasticky like the Asus EEE PC. However it does cost $300-400 more than the EEE.
The HP 2133 Mini-Note is a full-function mini-notebook, starting at less than US$500, and according to HP is designed for the education market. However, its different models have us thinking twice about this system being strictly for the kiddies. Feels more like something for the "on-the-go" executive.
Tech65 did a video podcast at the launch party few weeks back and a HP Product Marketing Manager did a decent sell of the notebook.
Powerset unveiled tools for searching Wikipedia that use conversational phrasing instead of keywords, marking the first step of its challenge to established Web search services such as Google. Powerset also has features that help you locate facts within articles "Explore Facts"; used to extract, navigate and explore.
I took part in Jason Calacanis' (CEO of Mahalo and owner of a Tesla Roadster) video-cast on the effectiveness of Powerset and he invited us to carry out our own searches and post the results for a Mahalo mug!
Comparisons on 3 search fields: where is singapore, how tall is singapore flyer and is there a grand prix night race.
where is singapore: powerset got it loads of unrelated hits on singapore (film festivals etc) but google got it spot on.
how tall is singapore flyer: powerset did pretty well.
is there a grand prix night race was interesting. powerset failed. google and yahoo did pretty well. In Yahoo, it showed a Wikipedia listing of Singapore Grand Prix which states that it is the first night race. So wonder why Powerset didn't show that result.
is there a grand prix night race.
