Whistle-blowing hotline launched

Report a misconduct and risk losing your job, feign ignorance and allow your conscience to be pricked - these are common dilemmas employees face when they come to know of unethical behaviour among their colleagues.

Without a confidential feedback channel, workers may turn to the media and the company may incur huge financial and reputation losses from the bad publicity generated.

To solve this problem, a whistle-blowing hotline was launched on Tuesday by Singapore firm Q2 Consulting Partner and United States' Global Compliance for employees to file allegations against their own company.

They can either choose to disclose the content anonymously or non-anonymously and investigations will then be made to verify the case.

According to a Global Compliance spokesperson, 40 Singapore firms have already signed up for this service.

Businesses providing whistle-blowing services have become more popular since 2006, after the slew of corporate and charity scandals in Singapore.

Local auditing firms such as Deloitte Singapore said more companies are taking up whistle-blowing services whereby staff can feedback through hotlines, emails and SMSes.

Similarly, employees can choose to remain anonymous.

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Agencies predict increased demand for contract work in 2010

Employment agencies are expecting hiring plans to improve in 2010. But industry experts say contract work will continue its upward trend.

This is on top of various permanent positions being made available as companies attempt to boost their workforce.

Kelly Services has been receiving more calls from employers who want to engage contract workers. The recruitment agency says it has seen a 15 to 20 percent increase in demand in recent months.

It expects the figure to stay healthy in the first quarter of next year.

Dhirendra Shantilal, senior vice-president at Kelly Services, says: "This whole global crisis has also helped companies to realise that they need to have a balance between their permanent workforce and a contract workforce. As a result of that, we're seeing a lot more companies coming to us for more contract work."

Demand for contract employment exists in all industries, especially in the financial, retail and hospitality sectors.

HR consultants say companies are still cautious and are relying on contract work due to the uncertainties in the economic recovery.

For job seekers, that means having to be flexible about accepting work on contract terms.


Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Linking growth with entrepreneurship

A shrinking economy may spur more people to start a business out of necessity, but expectations of a better economic climate for Singapore do not necessarily point to less entrepreneurship, according to experts on the subject.

This is because the dynamics contributing to a country's entrepreneurship level are complex, and so the school of thought that entrepreneurial activity increases when the economy is not doing well may not hold.

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

42,000 unemployed find jobs through Spur

THE report card for the Singapore Workforce Development Agency's (WDA) Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur) is out.

The programme has trained more people than it aimed to, found jobs for many trainees who were unemployed, and saved countless others from being retrenched.

Started in November last year, the programme has enrolled 264,000 workers in its various training courses, exceeding the target of 220,000.

The programme also helped about 42,000 of them - unemployed citizens and permanent residents - find jobs, mainly in the food-and-beverage, cleaning, wholesale and retail-trade, manufacturing, and security sectors.

About seven in 10 were rank-and-file workers with up to secondary education. Six in 10 were aged 40 and above.

In addition, more than 2,770 others were given traineeships in more than 390 firms, under a government-funded Professional Skills Programme Traineeship scheme launched in May this year.

The jobless workers had been among 88,000 workers who had approached the WDA of their own accord. Others were employed but looking to acquire new skills for a career switch.

The rest - 169,000 workers who made up two thirds of the whole pool - were sent by 4,000 companies, which tapped Spur to cut costs, save jobs, and help displaced workers gain new skills and jobs.

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

China firms try to lure talent home

THE battle for talent has come to Singapore, with 18 China companies teaming up to hold a first-ever job fair here to lure China-born professionals to return home to work.

Among them were heavy-hitters such as the Bank of Shanghai and the Shanghai Stock Exchange, offering 117 high-level positions that pay up to $250,000 a year plus perks, including housing allowance.

The jobs offered by the companies from Shanghai were in fields such as risk assessment and wealth management. Many required at least a master's degree.

About 1,000 people were at Suntec City recently for the fair, which was the third stop by the companies in their global search for talent.

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

2.6% pay increase likely

EVIDENCE is growing that Singapore workers can look forward to modestly fatter salaries next year and that the job situation here is improving.

A survey out last Friday from global human resources firm Hewitt Associates showed that employers in Singapore are poised to raise pay by 2.6 per cent next year.

In addition, most companies polled do not expect to freeze salaries next year - down from a high of 60.3 per cent this year, to just 12.8 per cent expected next year.

Mr Samir Bedi, Hewitt's South-east Asia performance practice leader, said: 'The compensation sentiment is more positive with organisations ready to take on 2010 with a fresh, energised outlook to manage talent.'

Hewitt's Singapore Salary Increase Survey polled 153 firms in July and August this year. Its findings came a day after human resource firm ECA International released a survey which showed employees here can expect a 3 per cent pay rise next year.

ECA also found 11 per cent of 99 firms polled here are proposing salary freezes next year, down from this year's 39 per cent.

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Developing countries in Asia see highest salary increases

Employees in Singapore can expect salary increases of 3% in 2010, up from this year’s 2% average, according to ECA International’s latest Salary Trends Survey. In Asia, salary increase forecasts remain highest in the growth areas of China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Salary increases within the region are predicted to average at 5% in 2010, almost twice as high as this year’s actual 2.8% average, and significantly higher than the average 2010 forecasts for Western Europe (2.6%) and North America (2.8%).

Results from the survey indicate that like their Singapore counterparts, employees in Hong Kong and Taiwan can also expect salary increases of 3% in 2010, compared with this year’s actual 1% and 0.5% increases respectively. Chinese employees are likely to see their salary increases rise from 3% to 6% at the next pay review.

The largest salary increases within the region are forecast for Vietnam (10%), India (9.3%) and Indonesia (8.5%), continuing a trend that persisted even during the economic turbulence of the last 12 months.

Employees in Japan are predicted to receive 2% salary increases – the lowest in the region. Whilst employees in Australia and New Zealand can expect to see an increase on the 2% awarded this year with companies there forecasting 3.5% and 3% rises respectively for 2010.

According to Lee Quane, ECA International’s regional director for Asia, while these numbers have not reached the levels of the boom years, the figures indicate that companies operating within the region are much more confident about economic conditions than a year ago.

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Gradual economic pickup expected for Singapore

The Singapore economy is likely to settle at a more gradual pace of expansion, with GDP growth in 2010 expected to be lower than in previous post-recession periods.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in its Macroeconomics Review released on Thursday that compared to six months ago, the outlook for the second half of 2009 and for 2010 is "markedly more optimistic".

However, the MAS also sounded a word of caution in its report which is published twice a year.

"As we approach 2010, GDP growth will likely shift to a more sustainable trajectory, underpinned by a modest turnaround in final demand in Singapore's key external markets," it said.

It said concerns remain about the resilience of global demand, given the lingering weakness in the financial sectors and labour markets of developed economies.

Among Singapore's major trading partners, those that are expected to grow below their long-term trends next year account for nearly half of the island's total exports. The MAS said this points to domestic growth that is likely to be lower compared to previous post-recession periods.

It added that while Singapore's recovery from the downturn may become more broad-based, job creation could, nonetheless, be modest in 2010 as the relatively small job losses resulting from this downturn means that firms may be carrying surplus labour.

External factors will also continue to influence the cost of living in Singapore, with the MAS expecting inflation to come in at around 0 per cent in 2009, before rising to 1-2 per cent in 2010.

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Fresh grads have it tough

FRESH university graduates will face a tougher search for jobs and lower starting pay this year due to a hiring freeze and retrenchments brought about by the economic downturn.

Although some students have been getting job offers as early as seven months before graduation, the overall mood is downbeat.

While all three local universities - the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU) - have yet to compile official employment statistics for the class of 2009, they are already preparing their students for the grim prospects.

'These are indeed challenging times, with fewer job opportunities for fresh graduates than in previous years,' said Mrs Ruth Chiang, director of career services at SMU. 'We have advised our graduates to be more realistic in their expectations and cast their nets wider.'

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Handle employees under 35 with care

A boss who doesn't treat employees under 35 the way the organisation had initially promised them during job interviews will cause high staff turnover among that age group.

Dr. David S. Cohen, founder of human resources development firm Strategic Action Group, says these are "bad" managers who would give candidates "false hope" during the interview process by mismanaging their expectations. Things will get ugly when Gen Y candidates take on the job and they realise their expectations are not met. "People are going to be upset, disappointed and angry," he says. "If you are under 35, you'll definitely leave because you have confidence, you know you are going to be employed even in this economy downturn."

Hence, Gen Y employees do not quit because they don't like the company or they want more money, says Cohen. Gen Y employees will most likely jump ship to another job which pays less if they dislike their current managers. "They leave managers who didn't treat them the way they expect to be treated." He adds, "If you are unhappy at the company you are at, you will take a job for 10% less at somewhere else to be happy."

For Gen Y, money is simply not an issue, says Cohen, as long as they feel they are paid fairly. Then again, this principle applies to most of the generations in the workplace. "The reality is most people would not move their jobs even for 10% more if they are being treated right because it's better to be at the company you like and enjoy working at."

This is much preferable than taking a risk to join a new company which one is unfamiliar with and might not enjoy working at. Nevertheless, Cohen says employee retention is also dependent on the individual's career goals. "If the value proposition for the employee is development and development is taken out of the budget, they are going to go to another company for less money but which is offering development."

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

2 in 5 companies foresaw need to cut wages in 2009

According to findings published by the Ministry of Manpower, two in five private establishments foresaw the need to cut wages in 2009 if conditions worsen. This was during the period in December 2008 when Singapore's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the quarter contracted over the year by 4.2%.

Meanwhile, companies with a Monthly Variable Component (MVC) in their wage structure were more confident of gaining their employees' acceptance of a wage cut, if it has to be implemented compared with establishments without MVC.

These were published in the 320-page 'Report on Wages in Singapore, 2008' published by the Ministry of Manpower's Research and Statistics Department.

Other key findings of the report include the following:

• Only a small minority (1.7%) of private establishments with MVC in their wage structure cut the component in 2008, as economic conditions deteriorated sharply only from the last quarter of 2008 when GDP contracted over the year by 4.2%.
• The top two common measures of wage cut are cutting the annual variable component (74% of establishments) and basic wage (47%), followed by MVC (15%) as the latter was weighed down by establishments without MVC.
• As of December 2008, 84% of the workforce in the private sector was under some form of flexible wage system, same as a year ago. Large establishments (employing 200 or more employees) continued to lead in the implementation, with the vast majority (90%) of their workforce having at least one key wage recommendation in their wage system, compared with 75% in small and medium enterprises.
• With the economic downturn and increased business costs in 2008, employers were more restrained in granting salary increases.
• Occupations requiring higher skills and knowledge continued to command higher wages. In June 2008, the median monthly gross wages was the highest for managers ($6,400), followed by professionals ($4,405) and associate professionals & technicians ($3,000). Clerical ($1,960) and sales & service workers ($1,849) were paid close to $2,000. Among blue-collar occupations, the production craftsmen ($2,137) and plant & machine operators ($2,009) were paid much more than the group of cleaners, labourers & related workers ($975).
• Wages are generally observed to rise with age as workers gain experience and skills and become more productive over the years. The pace of wage increase with age is more pronounced among managers and professionals as their work is generally more knowledge intensive.

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Companies in Asia ramping up workforce amid economic downturn

Companies in Asia are ramping up their workforce planning activities in response to the current economic downturn, according to a survey by global consulting firm Watson Wyatt.

The survey, released Wednesday, showed that more than seven out of every 10 companies in the region believe that workforce planning has become more important amid the current economic slowdown.

In fact, more than half have already begun to increase such activities within their organisations.

Workforce planning is the process by which an organisation aligns its workforce requirements to the business strategy using business analytics.

Although such planning is growing in importance, 60 per cent of those surveyed do not have a structured approach to workforce planning.

Instead, their attention is focused on immediate concerns like filling job vacancies, rather than longer term strategic issues relating to their workforce.

Asia Pacific Director of Watson Wyatt's Human Capital Group Russell Huntington said companies need to focus on longer term plans and review the capabilities needed in light of the current adverse business conditions.

He added that reducing employee costs cannot just be a numbers game, but should be a well thought-through, data-driven strategic exercise.


Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

12,760 jobs lost in Q1

TOTAL of 12,760 jobs were lost in the first quarter, government data showed on Monday, pushing Singapore's overall unemployment rate to a three-year high of 3.3 per cent.

The total employment fell by 6,200, the first quarterly contraction in nearly six years as the number of workers hired was lower than the number of workers who left their jobs. This was in line with the slowing economy, said the Ministry of Manpower in a statement on Monday.

Some 10,900 workers were retrenched, while another 1,860 had their contracts terminated prematurely, 36 per cent more than the 9,410 laid off in the last quarter of 2008.

Most of the cuts came from the manufacturing industry, which accounted for 72 per cent of the workers laid off, up from 55 per cent in December.

Cuts in the services and construction industry, however, were lower than the fourth quarter of 2008, falling from 40 per cent and 4.1 per cent to 25 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively.

A total of 95,700 residents were unemployed in March, said MOM.

The number of people re-employed also fell, with only 51 per cent of those retrenched in Q4 2008 re-employed by March 2009, compared to 70 per cent in Dec 2008 and 67 per cent in March 2008.

Job vacancies fell for the third consecutive quarter to 21,000, down 20 per cent from December 2008 and 45 per cent from a year ago.

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Singapore civil servants ranked most efficient in Asia: survey

A business survey on 12 Asian cities found that civil servants in Singapore are the most efficient.

The survey, conducted by Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), also found that Singaporean bureaucrats are unhelpful when things go wrong.

It is the third time Singapore took top spot in the survey, last conducted in 2007.

Hong Kong came in second, followed by Thailand, and India was last.

Over 1,200 expatriates working in these 12 Asian cities took part in the survey. - CNA /ls

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Executive recruitment hit hard by recession | Jorbb.com

Executive searches worldwide have fallen 35% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period last year, according to a report by Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC).

The Q1 State of the Executive Search Industry Report polled over 1,500 executive search consultants in 46 countries and found that executive searches in the financial services industry suffered the hardest blow, with a 41% yearly drop in the first quarter of 2009.The industrial sector fell 27% year-on-year, while the healthcare sector showed the least decline with a 21% drop compared to the first quarter of 2008.

Peter Felix, president of AESC, feels the findings show that no region, industry or function has been unaffected. "Top management have been caught in the headlights of overwhelming uncertainty and have acted more to protect assets and reduce costs than to plan for the future. It is thus no surprise that the worldwide executive search profession has been affected.”

The fall in executive recruitment streams from financial trends emerging as a result of the economic downturn. Average net revenues fell by 38% in the first quarter of 2009, compared to the same period the previous year. The average fee per executive search assignment also declined 12% from Q4 2008 to Q1 2009.

Click here for Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

MCYS committed to supporting Singaporeans through trying times | Jorbb.com

Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has committed his ministry to supporting Singaporeans through these trying times.

In an addendum to the President's Address delivered at the opening of Parliament on Monday, Dr Balakrishnan said the ministry will exercise greater flexibility to help those at the margins.

At-risk families will be identified early, so that they will be brought under intensive case management.

And even as public donations decline in a tough economic climate, the caseloads of voluntary welfare organisations rise. The ministry has increased funding and provided a contingency fund to support these groups, as well as encouraged training for professionals in this sector.

In times of adversity, the ministry is also watching out against fault lines of nationality, ethnicity and religion.

That is why a National Integration Council has been set up to promote mutual trust across communities, especially amongst new citizens.

Dr Balakrishnan is also counting on sports to rally the nation, and looks ahead to next year's Youth Olympic Games (YOG) 2010.

The Singapore Youth Sports Development Committee will provide more opportunities for youths to play and compete in sports, and the ministry will leverage on the excitement from YOG to promote youth volunteerism.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

MOM focuses attention on developing globally competitive workforce | Jorbb.com

Singapore said measures like the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) are efforts not just for the downturn but to also ensure the Republic remains competitive in the long-run.

The Manpower Ministry highlighted its plans in conjunction with the President's address to Parliament.

Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said a key priority in the next two years is addressing the downturn.

Up to April this year, 94,000 workers and 1,400 companies have committed to training programmes under SPUR.

Me Gan said: "SPUR will encourage companies to save jobs but it is not intended to stop companies totally from retrenchment. Some restructuring is necessary for companies to better position themselves so that they are able to cope with the downturn and emerge from the recession stronger and more competitive."

While SPUR is for a two year period, the Manpower Ministry hopes that Singaporeans will continue to cultivate the attitude of lifelong learning and develop a learning culture even after the economy recovers and the recession is over.

To achieve this, the ministry said it will continue to strengthen the system of Continuing Education and Training (CET). This will be done by expanding the CET infrastructure and recognising the qualifications by employers and workers.

There are now more than 40 CET centres in Singapore. Mr Gan also urged all to be prepared for a second wave of retrenchments, one reason for the release of new tripartite guidelines to manage excess manpower in companies.

He said: "Once we are prepared, whether it comes in the second, third or fourth quarter, it doesn't really matter because we are already prepared. The companies are ready, tighten, strengthen, our workers are already ready. That is the most important task ahead of us."

Moving ahead, the ministry said low wage workers will continue to be helped through Workfare, to ensure they too benefit from the country's progress. - CNA/vm

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Survey shows S'poreans would take 42% pay cut | Jorbb.com

If they lost their jobs, Singaporeans on average think they would be able to cope without their main source of income for eight and a half months.

In survey findings that the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) hopes will guide the future calibration of social support for retrenched individuals, it was noted that younger people and the lower-income would be less resilient. For instance, there were more in their 20s and 30s, than in the older age groups, who would be able to cope for only up to six months.

Eight in 10 respondents would rely mainly on their personal savings.

But while just 31 per cent would step out of their comfort zone to take on any job, tellingly, respondents were on average willing to take a hefty 42-per-cent pay-cut in their next job, should they lose their current one (though the pain threshold for lower-income respondents was far lower at 34 per cent).

Very few people (5 to 7 per cent) would turn to the Government or welfare agencies for help; more (28 per cent) prefer the support of friends and family.

These findings, gathered from 817 Singaporeans and Permanent residents in mid-February, showed that Singapore residents were on the whole a fairly resilient lot, said IPS senior research fellow Gillian Koh. The study is the first of a series to study the perceptions of policies in Singapore.

Full Article, click link below.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

New Measures to Develop Manpower Capabilities in this Economic Downturn | Jorbb.com

The Ministry of Manpower is introducing new measures under SPUR (Skiils Programme for Upgrading and Resilience) to further develop Singapore's manpower capabilities and provide greater support for companies and workers, especially Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs), affected by the downturn. They are:

a) Increase in Absentee Payroll to better support training for PMETs - Annex A;

b) SPUR-JOBS to encourage recruitment and retention of trainees of SPUR and other WDA CET programmes - Annex B; and

c) Professional Skills Programme Traineeships (PSPT) scheme for companies to build new capabilities in growth sectors - Annex C.

Full Article, please click link below.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Budget's focus on jobs paying off | Jorbb.com

THE decision to focus this year's Budget on saving jobs was the right move as its key planks have helped temper job losses and cut the cost burden on employers.

And while the Government's emphasis going ahead will remain focused on saving jobs, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday said workers and union leaders must continue to play their part.

Speaking at the annual May Day Rally, he outlined how the Government had and would continue to help on the jobs front.

One approach has been through the Jobs Credit scheme which subsidises a company's wage bill for local workers; and the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience which pays part of workers' wages while they are on training.

A second has been to go on the offensive and create new jobs and capabilities.
The Integrated Resorts, for example, are already recruiting workers.

Also, the Economic Development Board (EDB) has brought in new projects and got existing companies to expand.

Full Article, click link below.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

4 in 10 laid off last year were foreigners | Jorbb.com

FOUR out of 10 workers laid off last year were foreigners, according to the latest figures from the Manpower Ministry (MOM).

The proportion is a 10-year high, and analysts say it shows that, contrary to popular belief, Singaporeans have not unfairly borne the brunt of layoffs in the current recession.

‘A lot of foreigners are employed in lower-skilled service industries, which slowed down in the later part of last year, so they have been affected,’ said Nanyang Technological University economist Choy Keen Meng.

A total of 16,880 workers lost their jobs last year, double the figure for 2007.
Of these, 13,910 were retrenched and 2,970 had their contracts terminated prematurely.
The bulk of those in the latter group - 2,380 - were foreigners.

Of the 13,910 retrenched, 9,770 were locals - Singaporeans and permanent residents - and 4,140 foreigners.

As the MOM pointed out, the proportion of foreigners laid off last year broadly reflects their presence in the workforce.

Foreigners made up 36 per cent of Singapore’s workforce last December.

In actual numbers, they formed 1.2 million of Singapore’s population in June, driving it to a record 4.84 million.

For complete story, visit Asia One

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Recession Will Last At Least 24 Months, Says Economist

(HONG KONG) Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor who predicted the financial crisis, said that he was 'still bearish' and that an economic recovery is going to take 'longer than expected.'

Corporate earnings will 'surprise on the downside,' Prof Roubini said in a speech in Hong Kong yesterday. 'Lots of banks, even the better ones, are going to be in trouble.'

Banks around the world have reported US$1.3 trillion in credit losses tied to the housing market collapse since 2007. The deficits, which spurred the first simultaneous recessions in the US, Europe and Japan since World War II, pushed the American government to pledge US$12.8 trillion to stabilise the banking system and revive economic growth.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index, which tumbled 38 per cent in 2008, has rallied 29 per cent after sinking to a 12-year low on March 9. Prof Roubini said that day that the S&P 500 is likely to drop to 600 or lower this year as the global recession deepens.

George Soros, the billionaire hedge-fund manager who made money last year while most peers suffered losses, said on April 6 that US stocks weren't at the start of a bull market yet because the economy is still shrinking.

'The current rally is a bear-market rally,' Prof Roubini told reporters after his speech. 'I don't expect a 50 per cent adjustment that I expected two years ago, but this is a dead-cat bounce, sucker's rally, whatever you want to call it.'

Prof Roubini's view contradicts that of investor Marc Faber, who said on April 13 that the S&P 500 may rise to 1,000 in the next three months as government spending boosts bank profits.

Markets are 'way ahead' of real economic data and this recession will last at least 24 months, Prof Roubini said. He predicted China's economy will grow 5.5 per cent in 2009, which is slower than the 8 per cent expansion the Chinese government is targeting.

Prof Roubini has stayed away from 'risky assets' including equities, and 95 per cent of his savings have gone into cash.

'Reserving capital, compared with losing 50 per cent of it, is good,' he said. -- Bloomberg

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

S'pore ranks second-lowest for job satisfaction | Jorbb.com

SINGAPOREANS have long been suspected to be a dissatisfied bunch - and now there are numbers to add to that view.

In Robert Half's latest survey of finance professionals, Singapore ranks second-lowest worldwide for job satisfaction, with only 53 per cent of local respondents claiming to be satisfied with their job.

Ironically though, their dissatisfaction may stem largely from their uncertainty over being able to keep their job.

Ranked third-lowest worldwide for satisfaction with job security, only 54 per cent of local respondents said they were satisfied with job security in their current position.

'As job losses continue to mount, concerns about job security, career prospects and the ability to maintain a work-family balance as workload increases are heightened,' said Tim Hird, managing director of Robert Half Singapore.

'During these tough times, managers must demonstrate strong leadership in managing their staff, to not just allay their concerns but also to motivate and encourage them and keep overall employee morale high.'

Other Asians are not much happier in their jobs than Singaporeans, forming a regional theme of dissatisfaction. Bringing up the rear on the job satisfaction front, Japan ranked the lowest globally at 47 per cent, while Hong Kong was third-lowest at 54 per cent.

Worldwide, finance professionals in Dubai were the happiest job-wise, with 85 per cent claiming to be satisfied.

Singapore's finance professionals also scored low on company loyalty, with 59 per cent of them saying they felt 'very loyal' or 'rather loyal' to their firm.

The only other countries in the survey that ranked lower than Singapore on this count were Hong Kong and Japan with 42 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.

Not surprisingly, only 11 per cent of local respondents said they plan to stay in their current job for the next 12 months, the smallest proportion worldwide.

Forty per cent are either actively looking for another job or plan to do so in the next 12 months. In Hong Kong - the only country to outrank Singapore in this area - 45 per cent of respondents plan a job change.

In Singapore, the main reason cited for a job switch was an increase in pay, for which 35 per cent indicated they would walk. A better work-life balance came in a distant second, with 21 per cent of respondents citing it is the reason for a job change.

'Especially in these uncertain times, we are advising both our clients and candidates to focus less on monetary compensation packages but more on the content and scalability of jobs,' said Mr Hird.

The survey was conducted by the consulting firm in October last year. It involved 3,556 finance professionals globally, 200 of whom were in Singapore.

This article was first published in The Business Times.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Pay rises slow down in Singapore: survey | Jorbb.com

SALARY increases in Singapore are slowing down to a crawl, according to ECA International's latest Salary Trends Survey.

Held in February, the survey monitors how economic conditions have changed since its first run in September 2008. The data reflects nominal wage projections.

Singapore workers will see a lower pay increase of 2 per cent, down from 5 per cent last year. This is well below the regional average of 4.8 per cent and almost two-thirds lower than initial forecasts.

Of the 41 companies surveyed for Singapore, 36 per cent announced intentions to halt pay increases. These companies included multinational corporations (MNCs) as well as other companies headquartered here.

Other countries and territories in the region are also experiencing the squeeze. Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong have recorded a steep fall in expected wage increases. In addition, almost a third of Asia Pacific-based companies surveyed plan to freeze salaries.

However, there are still some bright sparks in the region.

India, Vietnam and Indonesia are expected to see wage increases of 10.8 per cent, 10.6 per cent and 9 per cent respectively.

In particular, Vietnam is the only country in the region where rises are predicted to outstrip last year's.

'There is still a huge demand for talent in India which is keeping salary increases high despite the current economic situation. While in Vietnam and Indonesia, persistently high levels of inflation are keeping increases up,' said Lee Quane, regional director for ECA International's Asia operations.

However, in most other countries including Singapore, annual inflation rates have fallen. Hence, 'real wage increases - the difference between actual salary increases and inflation - may not differ significantly from last year'.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Grads flexible about salaries | Jorbb.com

FRESH graduate Wang Wei Xiang will jump at a job that pays $2,000 a month, even though it is $500 less than the average starting pay.

The 26-year-old, who has a degree in business management from Singapore Management University (SMU), is even willing to be an intern for $700 a month.

His overriding concern is that the job gives him experience in human resource and organisational development.

Mr Wang's flexible stance on pay is typical of the 800 new graduates who attended a job fair yesterday. Over 6,000 jobs were on offer from 28 organisations at the fair organised by Young NTUC, the youth arm of the National Trades Union Congress.

Participants included the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), integrated resorts Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World at Sentosa, and pre-school operator NTUC First Campus.

About 12,000 are expected to graduate from the local universities this year, said NTUC assistant secretary-general Josephine Teo.

But at least 1,000 of them may find themselves without a job even after six months, should their employment rate hit the 87 per cent level of the 2003 Sars period, said an NTUC statement yesterday.

Hence, Mrs Teo, adviser to Young NTUC, urged graduates at the fair to promptly launch their career even if they cannot find their 'dream' job. Whatever the job, it will give them new skills, she said.

She also highlighted the large number of jobs on offer at the fair, saying it shows there are still many opportunities despite the downturn.

Mrs Teo's advice struck a chord with SMU marketing graduate Desiree Koh, 24. 'I'll accept a starting pay of about $2,000. I'm still young,' she said.

Employers at the fair said most of the students they met yesterday were enthusiastic and willing to learn. Resorts World's assistant vice-president for communications Robin Goh said it received 300 applications at the fair. The most popular jobs were that of a croupier and of supervising operations at theme park Universal Studios Singapore.

Four in five asked questions that showed they were keen to find a good job fit, while one in five were interested only in the starting pay, he said.

The National Council of Social Service also saw some interest in the 100 positions for social workers, special education teachers and other staff. Most of the interested 80 graduates were initially unaware of the role of the sector, equating social service work with volunteer service, a spokesman said.

The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and National University of Singapore (NUS) are also helping graduates find jobs. NTU has waived charges for employers to set up job booths on campus, said its career and attachment office director Loh Pui Wah. At NUS, students are getting help with job interview skills and setting up their own ventures, said its career centre director Corrine Ong.

Young NTUC plans to hold three networking sessions on specific industries to help new graduates find jobs. It also started an online employment advisory service yesterday for undergraduates and new graduates, at www.youngntuc.org.sg.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Take good care of staff; they will take good care of customers | Jorbb.com

IF YOU take good care of your associates, they will take good care of your customers, and the customers will keep coming back - such is the philosophy of Singapore Marriott, as spoken by its founder J W Marriott Snr.

'This is the bedrock of our success thus far,' says Greg Allan, the hotel's general manager. 'It identifies our main assets as our associates, setting us apart as an employer with a heart and an employer of choice.'

This belief has served Singapore Marriott well, for it has been deemed one of the country's Best Employers this year. It also won the award back in 2007.

Since it first opened back in 1995, Singapore Marriott continues to be steadfast in its commitment to training and developing its associates. With a staff strength of approximately 460, the hotel has a strong focus on staff welfare and career advancement.

'The working environment at Singapore Marriott is fair and dynamic,' says Mr Allan. 'We believe in providing equal employment opportunities and thereafter, development and training to all existing and potential associates.'

For full article, please click here.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Media-savvy professionals dominate short list for Queensland Tourism's competition for "best job in the world" | Jorbb.com

Short list: Anjaan RJ - India, Ben Henry - France, Ben Southall - UK, Cali Lewis - USA, Clare Wang - Taiwan, Clarke Gayford - New Zealand, Erik Rolfsen - Canada, George Karellas - Ireland, Greg Reynen - Singapore, Hailey Turner - Australia, James Hill - Australia, Juweon Kim - Korea, Magali Heuberger - Netherlands, Mieko Kobayashi - Japan, Mirjam Novak - Germany, Yi Yao - China.

Two Queenslanders are the sole Australian candidates for the $150,000 six-month contract as a "caretaker" on Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays, which will be announced in May.

The Queensland Government's tourism body announced 15 finalists for the job this morning, who will join the previously announced Taiwanese wildcard Clare Wang on the short list.

Hailey Turner, 20, is a student and IT sales rep from Brisbane and James Hill, 24, plans to return to his home in the Whitsundays after working as a photographer in London.

If he is successful in landing the Hamilton Island job, he can add it to his resume alongside a stint as official photographer for the Daydream Island Resort.

Ms Turner travelled to seven cities in 12 days as part of her efforts to land the stint in north Queensland.

"I wanted to travel to some of the largest demographics for international visitors to the reef and get out and meet as many locals as I could to encourage them to come and visit the reef," she said.

Alongside the two Australians are candidates from as far and wide as India, Ireland, the Netherlands and China.

The Tourism Queensland campaign attracted more than 34,000 video applications, and it was clear that an experience in the media was an advantage, with journalists, web developers, designers and an actress taking up nine spots on the list.

Other successful candidates include a charity fundraiser from England, a manager from China, an American PE teacher living in Singapore and a Japanese receptionist.

"The worldwide response to Tourism Queensland's Best Job in the World campaign has been nothing short of phenomenal and already we have achieved around $100 million worth of global publicity for Queensland," Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor said in a statement.

After narrowing the thousands of applicants down to a short list of 50 last month, organisers decided they had to expand their original plans of a 10-strong short list to 15.

"Tourism Queensland has spent the past few weeks watching in amazement at the lengths these candidates have gone to in their quest for the best job in the world," Mr Lawlor said.

"From organising stunts like scuba-diving in a tank in Amsterdam, dressing up as a mermaid in downtown Singapore and spruiking at a London pub to conducting hundreds of media interviews, the top 50 have shown an incredible amount of ingenuity and passion."

The short list will be flown to Hamilton Island on May 3, and the successful candidate will be announced on May 6.

The successful applicant will work on the Great Barrier Reef, and report back on what they are doing.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Time to embrace flexi-work | Jorbb.com

OFFERING employees the freedom to work fewer and more flexible hours could help companies trim costs and lift productivity amid the downturn.

Fewer hours - meaning lower pay - could help rein in salary costs. And offering more flexible hours to employees can also improve the bottom line, studies overseas have shown.

But perhaps what's best about flexi-work is that unlike retrenchment, it is likely to be embraced by young and old alike - with benefits that could well outlast the downturn.

At least three recent studies here have shown that flexi-work is a tempting carrot that would entice older folk from retirement and wean new mothers from baby bottles back to their Blackberries.

The latest, reported by The Straits Times last month, showed that 72 per cent of 1,000 workers polled would be encouraged to remain in the workforce for as long as possible in their senior years - if given fewer and more flexible work hours. Data for this survey was culled from a global study on the future of retirement by Oxford University.

Another recently released survey of 3,000 baby-boomers here, commissioned by the Government, yielded similar findings.

In yet another Government survey made public last July, more than 60 per cent of 25,000 unemployed older folk who planned to look for work said they preferred part-time work.

Same for mothers of young children. In a survey of 1,000 mothers who were either working or looking for jobs here last year, 85 per cent said flexible hours and results-based performance evaluation would best help them cope with the dual demands of children and career. The survey was commissioned by baby food company, Friesland.

But this groundswell of opinion has so far had little effect among employers.

Indeed, the Oxford survey, which interviewed 300 employers here as well, found that only 43 per cent of employers were willing to offer flexible work to older workers. The remaining 57 per cent, presumably, are against such arrangements - or at least undecided. Contrast that with Britain, where studies have shown that fewer than a tenth of all requests for flexi-work are turned down.

The Singapore working mothers survey, for its part, found that nearly two-thirds of the mothers were unable to re-enter the workforce after childbirth as they failed to find jobs that offered 'family-friendly' hours.

Figures from the Ministry of Manpower made public last December show that only 7.4 per cent of private sector employees here are on flexible work schedules, up from about 5 per cent in 2006.

If you include the public sector, the proportion of employees on flexible work arrangements in 2008 was 9.4 per cent.

While the numbers here are inching up, Singapore is still a far cry from countries like the United States and Britain, where nearly 30 per cent of employees work on flexible schedules.

So why the lag here?

The biggest hitch is that many employers still view 'face-time' at the workplace as an important criterion in evaluating staff performance and productivity, says Mr Josh Goh, senior manager for corporate services at recruitment firm GMP. They fail to recognise that there is little correlation between productivity and the number of hours worked, he says.

Chief executive officer of HR firm LifeWorkz, Ms Cheryl Liew, points out that many firms here have the misconception that the nature of their businesses is simply not conducive to flexi-hours.

Many small companies, for instance, equate telecommuting - that is, working from a computer at home - with flexi-work. They think that if they don't have sophisticated IT infrastructure, they cannot afford to be more flexible.

But telecommuting - ideal for desk-bound executives hooked up to office computer systems - is not the only type of flexi-work. There can be flexibility in both the scheduling and number of hours worked.

These include a 'compressed work week', where an employee works an extra few hours every work day, to be on a three- or four-day week. This is ideal for those in manufacturing.

Job-sharing - where two employees share one full-time position - has also proved to be useful to those in administrative or shift-based jobs.

Finally, there is the 'annualised hours' scheme where, instead of say 40-hours a week, employees are given an annual quota of the number of hours they need to work. Such a scheme is useful especially for organisations that have round-the-clock operations.

But companies here remain apprehensive about heavier administrative loads on managers in terms of communicating, supervising and scheduling the working time of employees.

This needs to change, say some experts on productivity. There is increasing evidence that flexible hours are not just a boon for employees, but for the company's bottom line too.

A 2006 study by Georgetown University in the US, for instance, cited several cases of companies that raked in more revenue even as they gave their employees more freedom in how and where they did their work.

Chubb, a Fortune 500 insurance company which implemented various forms of flexi-work in its claim services department, found a 40 per cent jump in claims processed, and a dramatic reduction in overtime costs.

Global IT giant IBM, for its part, saved US$20 million (S$30.6 million) in operating costs annually and over 500,000 sq ft of real estate by allowing employees to telecommute.

While Singapore companies watch and wait, the US and Britain are both beefing up their flexi-work mechanisms.

On Jan 30, days after being sworn into office, US President Barack Obama announced the formation of a task force to find ways for overloaded parents to better balance their work and family lives.

And from next month, a new British law will make it a right for all working parents with children under 16 to ask for flexible working conditions.

There is no need for legislation here yet, but clearly it's time to delve deeper into flexi options.

As work slows and morale dips, giving employees a choice on when and where they work could be the cheerful upside of this depressing downturn.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Resorts World to open up more job openings in mid 2009

Good news for jobseekers who are looking for jobs at the integrated resorts.

Resorts World at Sentosa will ramp up its hiring from June.

William Fong, 46, was among the 20,000 people who applied for a job at Resorts Worlds recently.

The former assistant engineer was retrenched early this year.

Now, the father of three has reasons to smile again.

He said: “After my first interview at Resorts World, they offered me a job as a slot technician. I feel glad that this company is really concerned about workers who are older and with lower qualifications.”

Resorts World has received overwhelming response to its recruitment efforts - it gets up to 200 online applications everyday.

Resorts World currently has more than 800 job openings. So far, only 10 of those positions have been filled, but Resorts World is looking forward to bringing in more new hires soon.

But those who did not get the positions they had applied for should not fret.

Assistant vice-president of communications at Resorts World at Sentosa, Robin Goh, said: “What may happen is that we may look through their resumes, and if we find them a fit in other attractions we have, Universal Theme Park for example, we may refer them to the Universal team to do the selection."

Resorts World says it is committed to hiring Singaporeans for the 10,000 positions available.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Jobseekers say more than 4 months needed to get new job | Jorbb.com

Eight in 10 jobseekers from more than 85 countries around the world predicted it would take unemployed workers more than four months to find a new job in today's turbulent market.

And four in 10 said the process might take seven months or even longer.

This is according to a recent survey of some 1,000 unemployed executives by the Korn/Ferry Institute, a talent management and leadership research firm.

Forty-three per cent of executives surveyed said they are keen on pursuing studies during the downturn.

Most jobless executives looking at educational opportunities were considering MBAs or other advanced degrees.

The survey also found that while 55 per cent of the jobseekers spent the majority of their time between jobs looking for new opportunities, one in four focused their time on professional development.

One in 10 chose to spend time more leisurely with family and friends, while seven per cent went on a vacation.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

84% of professionals here eye foreign postings: poll

FOUR out of five professional workers in Singapore look forward to a foreign posting during their career - more than in many other countries, according to an international poll.

Commissioned by London-based recruitment firm Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS), the poll found that professionals here are 'strongly motivated by opportunities for mobility, with 84 per cent interested in either a regional or international move'.

Overall, the poll of 1,400 professional and senior workers in the UK, Asia-Pacific, Australia and the US found that 78 per cent are keen to move abroad.

It also found that Singapore professionals are the most willing - 49 per cent - to move overseas in a similar position to their current job. The global average is 42 per cent.

But most of the professional workers polled do not get the chance to relocate. Only two out of five professionals in Singapore got a foreign posting in the past three years. The global figure was slightly higher at 45 per cent.

'It is evident that employees want fresh challenges and opportunities for mobility in their careers, and 84 per cent of those surveyed in Singapore have reflected this desire,' says AMS Asia-Pacific client director Allison Baird. 'International jobs are given much more value, with global experience being recognised.'

Foreign postings are not always available, she says. And this gap between supply and demand means organisations risk losing talent to competitors who can provide global experience.

According to the poll, the main drive to move overseas - cited by 74 per cent of respondents - is 'quality of job opportunity'.

Less that two-thirds - 62 per cent - are moved by the potential to earn more, while 59 per cent want to experience a new culture or travel.

'Recognising (the) appetite for change is becoming crucial for organisations as they seek to nurture their top performers,' says the Managing Mobility report that contains the poll results. 'Employers in Singapore placed the highest encouragement on mobility compared with other regions, but still remained low at only 27 per cent,' the report says.

An overseas posting is generally seen as a good career move.

Among Hongkongers, it is also highly prized for its exposure to Western working environments and practices.

And in Australia, it is viewed as a key to career development, especially work in the UK and Ireland.

Professional workers in the UK, while among those who place the highest value on an overseas posting, are also the least exposed to openings abroad.

Just 7 per cent of British professionals polled have secured an international placement and 48 per cent have no experience of 'departmental, regional or international mobility'.

Except in certain industries, international openings are least important to professionals in the US.

In another survey, by US-based human resources firm Kelly Services, half of the workers polled in Singapore said that they are willing to forgo pay and position for more meaningful work - roughly in line with the global number.

In particular, older workers here rank job satisfaction higher than money. Three in five baby boomers (aged 48-65) indicated this, compared with 47 per cent of Generation Y (aged 18-29) workers.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

12,668 jobs openings at E2i says NTUC Chief

About forty per cent of jobs available at Singapore’s Employment and Employability Institute (E2i) are offering salaries of more than S$2,000.

The National Trades Union Congress’ (NTUC’s) secretary general, Lim Swee Say, added that these job openings form almost half of the 12,668 jobs openings which some employers posted at the institute.

Mr Lim was speaking Tuesday at an organisational learning conference on the challenges NTUC is facing to help workers.

The NTUC chief said the government’s decision to introduce the S$4.5 billion Jobs Credit scheme is a strategic move. Firstly, the scheme would help companies implement their flexible wage systems as far as possible. And secondly, the scheme would also help to strengthen the tripartite partnership between the government, employers and unions.

Mr Lim said under the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR), more job seekers were coming forward to upgrade themselves. In fact, 7500 had done so at E2i.

Mr Lim added that through the various employability camps, confidence levels of workers to adapt to new jobs improved tremendously.

He said: “While on one hand, we are seeing an increase in retrenchment, but yet at the same time, we are very determined to ensure that retrenchment does not necessarily means unemployment.

“So our determination is to keep helping these job seekers, retrenched workers to go back for retraining under SPUR, and at the same time through the job matching services provided at E2i, the community development councils and various organisations, to go back to jobs as soon as possible.”

The bigger challenge now is to redesign jobs so as to minimise the mismatch of not just skills but also expectations.

Mr Lim said: What we hope is that as we go through this downturn, we can actually upturn the employment mobility of Singapore’s workers because job openings are there. What we have to overcome is the mismatch between the jobs and job seekers.

“Our biggest challenge today is to overcome and minimise structural unemployment. There are jobs and there are job seekers. How we can bring the two together by minimising the job gap, skills gap and more importantly the mindset and expectations gaps.”

The latest sector to address the retraining needs of workers is the logistics sector, which said the collapse in world trade had severely affected transport and storage.

NTUC’s assistant secretary-general, Josephine Teo, said: “The logistics sector is an important contributor to the Singapore economy. It not only supports the global transshipment of goods, which is the basis of our port activities, it strengthens Singapore’s position as a manufacturing and distribution hub. The sector employs 180,000 workers and contributes about nine per cent to the GDP. The recent global financial crisis had dampened business confidence and consumer spending. As a result, international trade had fallen.

“In Singapore, non-oil domestic exports fell sharply by 34.8 per cent in January this year compared to last year. While the news is sobering, we would all be better off if we stay positive, keep our spirits high, and focus our minds on weathering the downturn.

“The government’s Resilience Package worth S$20.5 billion had been welcomed by businesses and workers alike. In particular, the Jobs Credit scheme would provide relief to companies which had been hit by lower volumes or revenues, and faced intense pressures to cut cost.”

The Singapore Logistics Association is working with NTUC’s Learning Hub to come up with programmes to address the training needs of its excess manpower.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

IRs to recruit casino staff Thur | Jorbb.com

SINGAPOREANS wishing to try their hand at dealing cards at a casino can apply for jobs this week at the two upcoming integrated resorts.

Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS) and Marina Bay Sands will both kick off their first recruitment drive for gaming staff, together with other non-gaming positions, at the Career 2009 & Education 2009 fair starting Thursday.

The gaming positions available include dealers, pit supervisors and surveillance operators.

Ms Seah-Khoo Ee Boon, RWS' senior vice-president for human resources and training said hiring for some positions like the casino and Universal Studios theme park has to start earlier as more training may be required.

She added that up to six months will be set aside to prepare staff for the work at the resorts expected to attract thousands of punters when their doors open.

One fifth of the 800 jobs on offer by RWS will be for the casino with the rest for other areas including technical services, IT, human resource and resort services.

Marina Bay Sands' president Nigel Roberts said it has 'thousands of jobs' on offer but did not specify the total number or proportion of jobs available.

Both IRs said they are looking for people with an 'innate passion and motivation to serve'.

For those who wish to try for a casino job, Marina Bay Sands said it does not require new hires to go through formal casino training as in-house training will be provided.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

The SAF wants you - for its 2,000 positions | Jorbb.com

THE Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is taking the job market by the horns, offering some 2,000 positions at a three-day job fair in Ngee Ann City, which runs until tomorrow.

The positions are in the uniformed branches, either in the combat or service support vocations. They include divers, pilots, commandos, guards and armour personnel.

Military planners hope the sluggish job market would make a career in the armed forces an attractive option.

Besides school leavers, whether from the Institute of Technical Education, junior colleges or polytechnics, the military's recruiters are also keeping an eye out for people wanting a change from the norm.

One of them is Captain Jackson Tean, who traded his business suit for army fatigues in 2004, after realising that he was more suited for the military.

Before signing up, Capt Tean, 33, was an engineer with technology giant Hewlett-Packard and a business development manager with a home-grown textile company, Oceanic.

'It dawned on me only during my reservist training that I'd rather be out on the ground than be chained to the desk,' said the combat engineer, whose mid-career switch drew doubts from puzzled friends.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

350 jobs in creative sector | Jorbb.com

THERE are some 350 immediate job vacancies and many more training and apprenticeship opportunities in the Creative Industries, the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) said on Saturday.

Some job openings in areas such as Animation, Games Development, New Media, Public Relations, Publishing and Arts Management are available at the Creative Industries Fair. Participating employers include Emily Hill, DesignSingapore Council, Pearson Education, Double Negative, Ubisoft and the Institute of Public Relations.

Many of these jobs are suitable for Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs) interested in entering the sector or further advancing their career within the sector, the agency said.

The first-of-its-kind fair is jointly organised by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), the Ministry of Information, Communications & the Arts (MICA) and its statutory boards and agencies as well as SPRING Singapore. 15 employers and 13 training providers are participating in the event.

Eight new conversion programmes will also be launched to provide some 400 training and apprenticeship opportunities over the next year to help Singaporeans gain industry-relevant knowledge, skills and work experience in the arts and culture, design, media and communication sectors. These conversion programmes aim to help PMETs to convert to new careers successfully.

The fair also features many other skills upgrading programmes for those currently working in the Creative Industries specifically those in the Publishing, Arts Education, Printing, Animation, Games Development and Design sectors.

All these programmes are part of the Professional Skills Programme (PSP), announced by the Prime Minister last week. The PSP brings together the entire range of skills training and job assistance initiatives specifically for PMETs. These range from career conversion, skills upgrading, tertiary upgrading programmes to career workshops on communications skills, resume writing and interview techniques. PMETs will receive enhanced course fee funding support under the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR).

'As the creative industries are at the forefront of the latest technology, innovation and cultural trends, those working in the industries need to update their skills very frequently,' said Mr Chan Heng Kee, Chief Executive of WDA in a statement.

Entry to the Creative Industries Fair 2009, held at the Marina Square central atrium from 27 Feb to 1 Mar 09, is free. For more information, visit www.wda.gov.sg or call WDA's hotline 6883 5885 for further enquires.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Creative Industries (CI) Fair 2009 | Jorbb.com

The Creative Industries (CI) Fair 2009 is an inaugural event organised by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and supported by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA), National Arts Council (NAC), Media Development Authority (MDA), Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), DesignSingapore Council (DSG), and SPRING Singapore.

This is the first time that the Government is organizing an event to showcase the various job, career conversion and skills upgrading opportunities in the Creative Industries which cover the Arts & Culture, Media & Communications, and the Design subsectors.

The CI Fair 2009 will feature at least 300 jobs, 100 apprenticeship places, and 1000 training opportunities. Visitors can also find out more about the jobs available from companies, programmes to help individuals convert into the Creative Industries; as well as training courses to assist existing creative individuals to upskill and prepare for the upturn.

Exciting daily programmes are scheduled at the CI Fair 2009 where all visitors can get to interact with and hear from employers, creative professionals, agencies, trainers and individual workers sharing more on the Creative Industries. Besides these talks and forums, there will also be demonstrations and workshops at the fair.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Hirings down but pay steady | Jorbb.com

EXECUTIVES, professionals and managers can breathe a little easier: despite job cuts and hiring freezes, salaries have not dropped.

International recruitment firm Robert Walters, which released its annual salary survey on Wednesday, said it found 'salaries in Singapore are at least holding relatively steady'.

The only exception is in financial services, which 'continues to be extremely tough'.

The company's manager for the sector, Mr Pan Zaixian, said that back-of-the-house functions such as operations and finance had slowed down, as a 'downstream' effect, because the 'front office is not making money'.

In banks, hiring freezes and pay cuts have pushed people to seek jobs in 'less volatile' industries, such as the public sector, because of the security offered.

Skills-wise, sales and business development executives, who have the relevant industry knowledge, are in higher demand than other workers, said the survey.

Companies want them because they are able to 'hunt' out and bring in business for them, unlike marketing functions - which increases costs to the company - said Mr Andree Mangels, a manager for sales and marketing jobs.

Contract jobs, not just in information technology, are getting more popular with both employees and employers.

Said Mr Pan: 'In the past, people don't want contracts because it's not stable. They would never consider it. Now people who are looking for placements will voluntarily tell you they would take them.'

For the full Robert Walters Global Salary Survey, go to www.robertwalters.com/salarysurvey

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

99,000 jobs may go | Jorbb.com

Singapore may lose 99,000 jobs amid the nation's worst economic slump, pushing the jobless rate to 5 per cent by mid-2010, said DBS Bank in a report on Wednesday.

DBS also said the economy may contract 4.8 per cent this year, down from its earlier forecast of 3.3 per cent.

'Singapore is likely to experience its worst ever growth this year with a GDP contraction of 4.8 per cent. Labour markets are expected to deteriorate further, it said.

'The unemployment rate will likely hit 5 per cent with cumulative job losses expected to reach 99,000 by 2010. Policy measures that have been put forth so far will help to cushion the blows but the worst of the labour market cycle is yet to come.'

The Singapore economy shrank by 3.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to a year ago. Singapore's non-oil domestic exports plunged by 17.7 per cent in the same quarter, down significantly from an average negatove 4.2 per cent for the first three quarters of last year.

Most recent NODX growth in January plummeted by 34.8 per cent - the sharpest single month decline ever and a clear reflection of the collapse in global demand

'On account of the sharp collapse in global demand and export sales, we have recently lowered our growth for 2009 to - 4.8 per cent, down from an already low forecast of - 3.3 per cent,' said the DBS report. 'This marks the worst recession in Singapore's history, surpassing the previous low of -3.8 per cent registered prior its independence in 1964.

'With growth this weak, labour market conditions are expected to deteriorate further. The unemployment rate will creep higher as job losses mount.'

Singapore's unemployment rate has risen in the previous two quarters as the labour market continued to feel the heat of the global recession.

About 73,100 Singapore residents were jobless in December last year, an increase of about 58 per cent over a year ago. Job growth also slowed significantly, with just 26,900 jobs created in the fourth quarter, which is less than half the total gain of 55,700 in the previous quarter.

'Against the backdrop of the dire economic conditions, this is probably just the initial stage of a protracted down-cycle in the employment market. Job losses and unemployment rate will continue to rise as companies struggle to cope with the impact of the global downturn,' said DBS.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

PMETs will get more help: PM Lee | Jorbb.com

PMETs (professionals, managers, executives and technicians), who are often regarded as the 'sandwiched' group that receives the least help from the government, are not forgotten in this economic downturn.

More aid is on the way to help them stay in their jobs or find new ones if they are retrenched. The government will pull together available training programmes and expand them into a government-funded Professional Skills Programme (PSP).

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong unveiled this in the Singapore Tripartism Forum dialogue yesterday as he warned Singaporeans of more downside risks ahead for the economy.

'Our GDP growth is forecast to be between -2 and -5 per cent. It could be worse if the global economy worsens, even lower than -5 per cent is possible,' PM Lee told an audience of 550 employers, unionists and government representatives.

Singapore needs to be mentally prepared for several years of slow growth after that, he said. 'Over the next four-five years, if we can get 2-3 per cent growth, I think that's not bad; 3-4 per cent growth, I would say we are lucky.'

Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam noted that the debate on the economy has already shifted from a U-shape or a V-shape recovery to a U-shape or L-shape recovery that is characterised by a very prolonged bottom.

In this downturn, more PMETs are expected to be affected as the majority of Singaporeans now come under this category, added Acting Minister for Manpower Gan Kim Yong.

The Ministry of Manpower and the Workforce Development Agency will hence roll out the PSP to target the PMETs. It will be included under SPUR or Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience, and receive enhanced funding.

The PSP will cover skills conversion to help PMETs gain new skills to switch professions in growth areas and skills upgrading to make them more employable within the same industry.

For instance, financial industry professionals can specialise in risk management or product control through courses at the National University of Singapore and Singapore Management University. New or existing operations or customer service managers can take the Workforce Skills Qualifications Diploma in Tourism.

The PSP will also provide tertiary upgrading for PMETs under the enhanced SPUR programme, leadership and management skills training as well as career workshops.

Based on figures from unionised companies alone, retrenchments almost doubled from 800 in the third quarter last year to 1,500 in the fourth quarter, said Lim Swee Say, secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress.

For the first six weeks of this year, retrenchments hit 2,700. The first quarter is expected to see some 3,700 retrenchments. 'We are concerned about this trend,' said the labour chief. Re-employment of workers above the retirement age of 62 has also dropped in the first two months of this year by some 20 per cent.

But Stephen Lee, president of the Singapore National Employers Federation, said that there is no evidence that employers are targeting older workers when making job cuts.

Mr Gan said that the government was keeping to its plan for re-employment legislation by 2012 to enable more people to continue working beyond 62, up to 65 in the first instance and, later, up to 67.

And as with past recessions, there has also been a drop in the number of foreign workers. But PM Lee noted that it would be unwise to chase them out and force companies to send them back. This may not translate into more jobs for Singaporeans but, instead, hurt Singapore's reputation with multinational corporations (MNCs).

Without foreign workers, some companies may have to close down or decide to shift their entire business out of Singapore. 'The right thing to do is make Singaporean workers more attractive to businesses, through Spur and Jobs Credit,' PM Lee said.

Singapore would also do well to identify niche areas where there are still opportunities.

To this end, the Economic Development Board is also working hard to bring in more investments from overseas, PM Lee said.

Despite the downturn, Rolls-Royce is moving its marine business headquarters from London to Singapore and Abbott Laboratories will open its US$300 million nutritionals manufacturing facility in a few days' time.

'MNCs believe Asia will resume growth, and see Singapore as an important part of their Asian strategy,' PM Lee said.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

South East CDC sees 40% rise in job seekers between Nov and Jan | Jorbb.com

The number of job seekers at one Community Development Council (CDC) shot up by some 40 per cent in the past three months.

ADVERTISEMENT

South East CDC registered over 1,100 people looking for employment, between November and January.

It is no surprise then that hundreds of job seekers turned up in full force at the CDC’s one—day job fair on Saturday.

Organisers said more than 1,000 jobs are available in various sectors like healthcare, retail and logistics.

About 12 businesses and recruitment agencies and six training providers were also at the fair.

The CDC plans to organise about 100 such recruitment exercises this year.

It organised a total of 87 such events in 2008, and rolled out 10 new ones in January alone.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

NTUC to set up new fund to help low—income workers tide over recession | Jorbb.com

Singapore’s labour movement plans to set up a new fund called "U Care" to help needy workers tide over the recession.

It will be part of the S$20 million the unions hope to raise by May this year — to be given out to low—income households.

The labour movement plans to help low—income workers tide over the recession through a new fund called "U Care".

NTUC’s plans include more bursaries for children from low—income families — like the S$70,000 given out by the Healthcare Services Employees’ Union to some 530 students on Saturday — and more vouchers to help offset household spending.

Lim Swee Say, Secretary—General, NTUC, added: "What will be new this year is how we can provide hardship support for retrenched workers who may not receive fair compensation.

"Maybe the companies fold up or just disappear, and as a result they (workers) may not receive any retrenchment benefits, or the amount could be so low that it may not be enough to tide them over in the short term."

The unions plan to raise at least S$20 million this year — three times the amount given out in 2007. NTUC gave out a total of S$13 million in 2008.

Mr Lim said: "We know that it will not be easy. In fact, it will be doubly difficult; firstly, the sum is bigger, secondly, it comes (during) a downturn. Many organisations are cutting costs, but from our initial (feedback) from many of our social enterprises and business partners, I would say the support level has been fairly strong."

And the unions say the money will be given out in the form of vouchers to help families offset expenses in utilities and transport. But if need be, additional vouchers will be given out to help in other areas.

On Singapore Airlines’ recent announcement of an 11 per cent cut in capacity, Mr Lim said SIA’s management and unions are in close consultation on the matter.

He said: "Both the unions and management are committed to work together to cut costs and save jobs. So the unions and management are in close dialogue.

"I think both sides are committed that retrenchment will only be a last resort. They are not talking about retrenchments, they are talking about how closely we can work together, make full use of our flexible wage system, flexi work arrangement, cutting not just the wage costs but the non—wage costs as well."

Mr Lim said such management—union ties sets Singapore apart from other countries.

He said: "Our unions are not going to go on strike, our unions and our management are not just going to retrench workers, and cut jobs to save costs, but rather work together to cut costs and save as many jobs as we can." — CNA/ms

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

100 jobs will be available for the disabled | Jorbb.com

Jobs may be scarce during the economic downturn but Singapore companies are still hiring the disabled.

One hundred job openings for the disabled will be publicised in recruitment pages on Saturday.

These jobs are committed by employers who have signed up under the Open Door Fund to redesign jobs for the disabled.

This fund was set up as an incentive programme to help employers defray costs associated with hiring disabled persons.

It is an initiative by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports and administered by the Singapore National Employers Federation.

The Enabling Employers Network (EE Network), which made the announcement, has urged potential applicants to seize the opportunity to apply for jobs, as they will stand to gain training opportunities.

Employers are expected to tap on the various training schemes launched by the Workforce Development Agency.

EE Network, which started two years ago, is an alliance of employers who champion employment opportunities for the disabled.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

CDCs see almost 50% jump in number of job seekers | Jorbb.com

More people are seeking help at Community Development Councils (CDCs) - reflecting signs of a deepening recession.

All five CDCs saw an almost 50 per cent spike in the number of job seekers for January alone, compared to four months ago.

Some 40 per cent more people also sought financial assistance in January.

From October to January, some 10,000 job seekers turned up at the CDCs for help, while another 21,000 sought financial assistance.

Giving this update on behalf of the five CDCs in Singapore, Mayor of North West CDC Teo Ho Pin said that while the help extended has seen results, the councils are boosting capacity to cope with the rising case loads.

To date, six to seven out of 10 job seekers who approach the CDCs are successful. To keep these rates up, more is being done to boost the capacity at all five CDCs.

This includes increasing staff strength at service centres so that more applicants can be attended to daily. CDCs are also tying up with headhunters and employment agencies to help job seekers from a range of sectors and with different skills sets.

Dr Teo said: "What the CDCs would do is that we will monitor the impact of the recession on the residents, especially we are very concerned about the next few months, whether there will be more lay offs.

"If there are more retrenchments and workers being made redundant, then we will see how we can further boost up our existing schemes, and if need be, we will come up with new schemes to help very specific segments of residents affected."

All five CDCs have also collaborated to come up with a Recession and Resilience Roadmap, which is essentially a help directory for those in need.

Other than tips to cope with the economic downturn, the booklet, available in all four languages, also provides the various helplines, employment and retraining opportunities available.

Dr Teo added that although there is more help for residents to cope with the recession, programmes to promote social bonding and cohesion have not taken a back seat.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

NUS tie-up to aid job hunt | Jorbb.com

A TIE-UP between National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Business Federation (SBF) will give graduates a leg up in their job hunt and career.

Yesterday, NUS Provost Tan Eng Chye signed a memorandum of understanding with SBF deputy executive director Lim Chai Boon allowing students to network, do internships and explore business opportunities among the 15,000 firms the federation represents.

This is the first time the federation has formed a formal partnership with a university here. Professor Tan said: 'The tie-up with SBF will allow our NUS undergraduates and graduates to immerse in programmes or projects that will enable them to become business savvy in the global environment.'

He hopes this will help secure jobs for graduating students but with the recession deepening, internships may be a more viable way to gain employment.

SBF's Mr Lim said students should seize internship opportunities as many businesses try to identify talented students and hire them as permanent staff.

Graduating students are hopeful the scheme will bring greater work opporrtunities. Economics student Hesani Jayawickrarma, 21, said: 'The university is doing quite a lot to help graduating students get jobs. I will be sending out as many resumes as possible and will be open to all types of jobs, even internships.'

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Retrenched professionals urged to consider becoming entrepreneurs | Jorbb.com

Professionals who have lost their jobs in the current economic environment are being urged to consider becoming entrepreneurs.

Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan said the entrepreneurship landscape in Singapore remains healthy, with start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) still venturing overseas.

He said opportunities still exist for entrepreneurs who are resourceful and imaginative.

Data from SPRING Singapore showed that more start-up companies and at least two-thirds of all SMEs in Singapore now have operations overseas.

Of these SMEs, a quarter earned half their revenue from overseas last year - although this figure has fallen slightly over 2007.

The success stories include firms like Sakae Sushi and Charles & Keith, which started operations during the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997.

Mr Lee said the current economic crisis could present opportunities for Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs), who may have lost their jobs.

He said: "If you look at new ventures... many of them are started by professionals who work in certain industries for the last 10, 15 years and by then, they have acquired a very specialised knowledge of that industry.

"They know if they were to set up a company, how their company is going to value add. So I think in the PMET market likewise, there would be some of them who are in this unique position.

"But to cross over from a professional to an entrepreneur, of course there are some skills needed, and this is where I think our Enterprise Development Centre and our incubators can advise."

Entrepreneurs are also getting younger - with some 65 per cent under the age of 40. And SPRING Singapore is planning to reach out to more youths.

Mr Lee said: "If we one day can make them start and wind down a business in the course of their studies, then they will bring this skill set and experience with them, they may start a new business upon graduation, or they may do so 15 years later.

"But they have the confidence to say that 'Yes I have done it before, and I am ready to take it to the world now.'"

Two programmes catering to young entrepreneurs were launched last year under the YES! Scheme. Under the scheme, SPRING Singapore received 12 applications from schools seeking funds for entrepreneurship programmes and has approved two of them.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Helping students via SMS alerts and internships | Jorbb.com

WITH many multinational corporations putting the brakes on hiring this year, the Nanyang Technological University has set its sights on government agencies and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to hire its graduates.

Over the past few months, the university's career services officers have been cultivating ministries and SMEs to participate in NTU career fairs and recruitment talks.

Their efforts appear to have paid off. Out of the 107 organisations at NTU's two-day career fair which ended last Thursday, 28 per cent were from the public sector - double the number last year.

Some of the government agencies which participated included the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA) and Ministry of Education.

NTU career and attachment office director Loh Pui Wah said it took work to 'track down' new partners but the university was willing to put in the effort for the sake of its students.

In previous years, NTU used to rely on mass recruitment drives by MNCs and banks to hire a majority of its graduates.

About 5,000 graduates emerge from NTU each year. Last May, The Straits Times reported that 90 per cent of NTU students who graduated in 2007 got jobs within a month of graduating.

Mr Loh said recruitment by SMEs from growing sectors such as shipyard maintenance, chemical manufacturing and gaming can potentially make up for the hiring freezes by multinationals.

Mr Loh said: '[The SMEs offer] one or two positions but when you add all of this up, the numbers can be quite sizeable.'

NTU also introduced a new SMS service last month to alert students of job openings. Graduating students who fit the requirements of companies will receive SMS alerts informing them of new job opportunities.

It is looking at setting up a portal for students to upload their resumes for employers to view. It will be opening more venues on campus for career counselling to help students manage job expectations.

Mr Loh said that NTU is confident that these efforts will allow 80 to 90 per cent of its graduates to get a job offer by the time they graduate in July.

Other educational institutions are also doing their bit to get their students jobs.

The Singapore Management University and National University of Singapore are organising a series of recruitment and internship events in the next few weeks.

Singapore Polytechnic is going further by offering short term or contract jobs on campus to some students who will be graduating in May.

The students can be engaged in work such as estate management and maintenance, creating multimedia applications or assisting lecturers in research projects.

Having these opportunities to find jobs is comforting for graduating students.

NTU electrical and electronic engineering final-year student Jason Teo, 25, was armed with 10 copies of his resume when he attended NTU's career fair.

He said:'I used to think that I only want to work in the semi-conductor industry. Now I am open for jobs in any engineering company. Hopefully, I will get an offer.'

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Biomedical sector will create 900 new jobs this year | Jorbb.com

Despite facing challenges from the slowing global economy, the biomedical sector will create 900 new jobs this year as companies go ahead with their expansion plans here.

These include firms such as Wyeth, Abbott, GSK Bio, Schering Plough and Perkin Elmer, Minister of Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang said in Parliament on Monday.

To date, 11 of the world’s top pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have already invested in more than 25 manufacturing facilities in Singapore, with another seven new plants set to open in the next three years.

‘We are confident that more will come to Singapore so that they can reach out to the Asian market more effectively,’ said Mr Lim. ‘Demand for effective medicines will continue to grow because people become more affluent and people age.’

Singapore should also ‘prepare for the upturn’ by entering new niches, such as medical technology and biologics, which are complex molecules derived from cells of mammals, bacteria and yeast.

Biologics in particular is expected to grow at 13 per cent a year, compared to just 0.9 per cent for the traditional pharmaceutical market, Mr Lim said.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

NTUC helps retrenched workers learn new skills | Jorbb.com

CHIN Heng Garments Factory has closed its production lines and laid off more than 600 workers.

But those who have lost their jobs have been given substantial retrenchment packages - plus help in finding new jobs through an NTUC initiative organised by the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i).

e2i is a skills training institute that aims to maintain employability. And e2i officers are now updating the former Chin Heng workers on the employment market and job possibilities in other industries.

The Singapore Industrial and Services Employees' Union (SISEU) has partnered e2i to help the workers, 45 of whom are now attending a six-day Employability Camp Plus (EC Plus) tailored to their needs. About 90 retrenched staff have signed up for the training. A second camp will start later this month.

To cater to the significant number of Chinese- speaking job seekers, EC Plus is being conducted in Mandarin. But the importance of improving English- language skills to help job prospects will be stressed.

NTUC assistant secretary-general and SISEU executive secretary Josephine Teo said the aim of EC Plus is to help retrenched workers make a new start, possibly in unfamiliar industries.

She said in Mandarin: 'These workers, apart from their experience in manufacturing, have not had experience in other industries for many years. Therefore, we are helping them re- learn and expand relevant work skills.'

The aim is to quickly equip workers with skills so that they do not stay unemployed for long. e2i training is free for all Singaporeans. Participants can also receive further training.

To sceptics who say training may not guarantee employment, Mrs Teo said: 'Some hope is better than no hope. The job situation is not hopeless.'

There are plenty of job vacancies for people with the right skills, she said. Skills and expectations gaps can be bridged through training and a willingness to take up different job opportunities.

NTUC's training courses are backed by the Ministry of Manpower and the Singapore National Employers Federation.

NTUC is focusing on maintaining a positive approach in today's trying economic circumstances. The ultimate aim is to provide workers with jobs with clear development prospects.

Even after re-employment, e2i participants are encouraged to return to e2i for continuous learning.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

5000 more places for service course | Jorbb.com

AN EXTRA 5,000 places in training courses for jobs in the sales and services sector will open up this year.

These courses will prepare trainees for jobs such as receptionists, cashiers and store managers.

Run by the Singapore Institute of Retail Studies (SIRS), the courses are for two groups of people - those sponsored by their companies to upgrade their skills, and job seekers hoping to raise their chances of finding employment.

SIRS, which trained 10,500 people last year, can handle 15,000 at capacity. Its plan this year is to offer 5,000 more places beyond its capacity.

To enable this, it will hire more trainers, look for training space outside its premises in the Toa Payoh Hub, or even run classes at the premises of its clients.

SIRS director Lee Tong Nge said the institute was expecting a surge in applicants in the next three months, and it wanted to be prepared for the influx.

Already, companies are sending their people for training in these slack times. Over 20 firms approached SIRS asking for classes for their employees last September, up 30 per cent from the same month the year before.

The Workforce Development Agency subsidises the fees for SIRS courses by up to 90 per cent.

Acting Minister for Manpower Gan Kim Yong, who toured SIRS yesterday, is not unduly worried about having a surplus of trained people in a slowing economy because 'there are still opportunities in the retail sector'.

About 4,000 jobs in sales and services will be available when shopping malls such as Orchard ION and 313@Somerset open in the next two years, he noted.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Transitioning.org - to help the unemployed network, find emotional support and get work. | Jorbb.com

TWO friends who know first-hand what it's like to be unemployed, now want to help others in the same boat.

Mr Terence Tay, in his late 40s, has not held a full-time job since 2002.

And certified counsellor Gilbert Goh, 47, was previously unemployed for about 20 months between 2003 and 2005.

The two men have recently started a website - www.transitioning.org - to help the unemployed network, find emotional support and get work.

Said Mr Goh, now a teacher at a private school: 'The unemployment situation seems set to get worse, and there will be many people who will be hit with morale and psychological problems, on top of financial woes.

'We hope to form a support group through the site, offer online counselling to those going through difficult times, and eventually get employers to publicise job openings online.'

The site, which was started only last week, will be officially launched in late February, said Mr Goh.

It cost the two friends a few hundred dollars each to set up.

For both men, surviving unemployment had not been easy...

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Downturn a "perfect opportunity" to tool up | Jorbb.com

Despite the challenges in a tough economic situation, CEO of MSIG Holdings (Asia), Alan Wilson, says it is now a "perfect opportunity" to pick up talent for the future.

According to Wilson, 2008 profits for MSIG remain in the "comfortable" margins. However, the recession will throw up several new challenges for the organisation which include an increase in the number of cashflow problems and bad debts from clients, a spike in the number of dubious claims and a smaller return on investments during the next two years.

But there are opportunities to be tapped into during this downturn, Wilson adds, as MSIG is using this downturn to pick up talent that have been laid off from their struggling competitors and from regions such as North America and Europe.

Despite the industry's technicalities, insurance is still a people-based business where the capacity and capability to move ahead depend on the "quality and quantity of people that you have", Wilson says.

"Although times may be tough, it is a time for us to say, 'Are there areas of business which we are not in or strong at the moment where we can retool or tool up on?' And we can acquire talent which is available right now, and it is a perfect opportunity to do so."

For an insurance provider where labour and rent are the two biggest costs, will there be any cost-cutting action taken? While the company is "looking to be sensible about its costs", the focus is how employees can work smarter and more efficiently. Some of the initiatives now revolve around looking at conducting business in a more cost-efficient way, and introducing a standardization of best practices across the various 11 operations in the region.

"Although it is an expense, we are also looking at how we can invest in the future. It is not just running today's business, but also investing in tomorrow's business. We are investing in various areas such as new IT systems, new ways of doing business, and building the brand to make sure that we are well-positioned for the future."

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

CDCs gearing up to help those seeking employment, social assistance | Jorbb.com

Singapore’s Community Development Councils (CDCs) have been seeing an increase in the number of people seeking job help and social assistance over the last few months.

The majority of them are aged 40 years and above.

South West CDC has seen a 52 per cent rise in the number of residents seeking jobs over the last five months, while South East CDC registered some 1,800 job seekers during the same period.

It is a similar picture over at North West CDC —— it saw 42 per cent more job seekers in the same period, with numbers spiking from October when the recession first hit.

Besides job help, more residents have also been seeking social assistance.

Mayor of North West CDC, Teo Ho Pin, said: "Means testing is the best way to determine how much and how to help the residents and their family members. So by working with our partners, especially our grassroots organisations, the welfare communities, constituencies and volunteer welfare organisations, we are able to conduct a proper means testing and identify the needs of the family members and render assistance accordingly."

Besides providing social assistance to the needy, the CDCs are also focusing their attention on job matching. Over the years, these councils have been able to build up close rapport with a number of companies within their area.

The CDCs have also been organising job fairs featuring openings available in particular sectors of the Singapore economy.

These are expected to continue as the CDCs brace themselves for larger retrenchment numbers after the Lunar New Year.


Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Undergrads on the job hunt are spooked by grey clouds on economic horizon | Jorbb.com

UNDERGRADUATE May Zhang has given herself six months to find a job in the corporate world upon graduation; failing which, she may open a cafe with her boyfriend.

While she will graduate only in July — she has yet to take her final-year exam — Ms Zhang is already starting to worry about whether she will land her dream job with a communication consulting firm.

“I’m worried because there are fewer jobs available and we hear stories about friends who got retrenched after they found a job after graduation last year,” said Ms Zhang, 23, who is doing a double major in economics and corporate communications at the Singapore Management University (SMU).

But instead of leaving everything to chance after graduation, Ms Zhang has already mapped out her plans post-SMU.

“I’ll try to use the six months after graduation to find a job. There’s no point waiting to find the dream job because I can start my own business,” said Ms Zhang, who has already sent out resumes to three companies.

The avid baker, who started an online blogshop selling cupcakes one-and-a-half years ago, is considering opening a cafe with her boyfriend. She said: “I’ve always thought of setting up my own cafe. It’s an opportunity now to start my business.”

Like Ms Zhang, many final-year undergraduates interviewed by Weekend Xtra are also starting to worry — not about getting their dream job, but getting a job at all. Never mind that graduation is a good six months away.

At this time last year, most final-year students would have been more concerned with project deadlines, revising for their exams and less stressful matters, like planning their post-graduation holidays.

But with Singapore possibly facing the worst recession in its history, many undergraduates are putting worries about their job prospects at the top of their lists. Some 15,000 students are expected to graduate from Singapore’s three universities in July.

Said Dr Helen Chai, assistant dean of undergraduate admissions and the director of BBA programmes at the NUS Business School: “I think students are in tune with the current times and they are well-prepared for the situation ... They are exploring their options to enhance their career versatility, including the school’s concurrent masters programmes.”

Lowered expectations

For some, being well-prepared means sending out their resumes now instead of in April, when the exams are over, to give themselves a headstart over their peers.

It also means paying more attention to job advertisements in newspapers and career talks held by their universities.

Some undergraduates told Weekend Xtra that they are also lowering their job expectations, and that they are ready toaccept a lower salary or work in an industry that is not their first choice.

NUS civil engineering final-year student Yang Chang Han, said: “I’m planning to job hunt now; I had wanted to start after my exams. I’ve heard of people who have looked for a job for six months and are still jobless. Hearing their stories scares me.”

When asked whether his friends are also worried, Mr Yang, 25, said: “The question that we ask each other now is — ‘Have you found a job?’” He added that he is also willing to lower his pay expectations to $2,500, from his original target of $3,000.

Ms Jessie Loy, 23, is considering teaching as a career, even though she did not set out to be a teacher when she opted for mass communications at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

She said: “Recently, there was a teaching award seminar by the Ministry of Education and I thought I’d be one of the few ones from my course to attend it. But there were quite a lot of my coursemates there; they said they were checking it out as a potential back-up because they don’t know how the economy will be once they graduate.”

Another option that more undergraduates are considering is furthering their studies, such as pursuing a Masters degree.

Ms Qian Xiao Hui, 21, is considering doing a Masters in Financial Engineering if she doesn’t get a job when the banks make their customary hiring rounds in February. The final-year banking and finance student at NTU said: “I don’t want to compete in the bad job market. Education is an investment.”

Although the private sector may not be hiring as much as they used to, the public sector remains a good place for undergraduates to seek their first jobs. Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced in his recent Budget speech that the Government would open up 18,000 new public sector jobs over the next two years across different ministries and statutory boards for all levels of employees.

Still, despite such openings, the job market will still be a tough year for fresh graduates, given the high number of job losses expected this year, said Mr Alvin Liew, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank.

Professor Michael Heng, from NTU’s School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, said that while the job market may be tight, graduates who are flexible in their job hunt should have no problem finding a job.

He said: “You need to see your skills differently. If you see yourself as having a capability and not just having hard skills, you have no problem finding a job. Paywise, you still have to adjust expectations, but if you do well in your job, there’ll be no problem getting pay increments.”

Despite the bleak outlook, some students already have jobs waiting for them come July — thanks to the help given by their respective universities (see sidebar).

Mr Colin Teo, a final-year student at NTU’s Nanyang Business School, took up an offer from the school to intern at one of the Big Four accounting firms last June.

The 24-year-old said: “I signed up for it because I already felt the signs when the sub-prime crisis started and the US dollar started to weaken. I know I had to do an internship at one of the Big Four to secure a job.”

He approached his internship company last November for a job and got an offer ahead of his peers. Given the tough economic climate, Mr Teo said: “It’s better to be somewhere now than nowhere. It’s barely six months to graduation and some people are not even getting job offers. But they are not in total despair; they are still taking things in their stride.”

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Unemployment rate rose to 2.6% | Jorbb.com

SINGAPORE'S job growth has slowed significantly, with the manufacturing sector bleeding jobs for the first time since 2003.

Preliminary estimates released on Friday morning by the Manpower Ministry showed 26,900 jobs in all added from October to December last year, half of the gains of 55,700 in the previous quarter.

The whole of last year saw 227,200 jobs being added, down from 234,900 in 2007.

Employment in manufacturing contracted by 6,200 in the fourth quarter last year.

The main driver of the economy, services, also saw fewer jobs added for the third straight quarter.

It added 21,900 jobs, down from a high of 46,500 at the beginning of the year.

Construction added 10,800 jobs, down from 16,500 in the previous quarter.

Both locals and foreigners benefited from employment growth, but local employment grew slower, by 70,400 last year, down from 90,400 in the previous year.

Foreign employment rose by 156,900 last year, up from 144,500 the previous year.

With the downturn deepening, job growth has slowed for both locals and foreigners in the last quarter of the year, the ministry said, without giving figures.

As at December, the workforce was made up of 1.9 million locals (64 per cent) and 1,057,700 foreigners (36 per cent).

The ministry also released figures of workers who were laid off and those who were let go prematurely from their contracts.

A spokesman said this was to give a more complete picture of people who would have lost their jobs.

Their ranks swelled to 8,500 in the fourth quarter of last year, up from 3,178 in the previous quarter.

For the whole of last year, 16,000 workers were made redundant, up from 8,592 the previous year.

Correspondingly, unemployment has risen.

It rose to 2.6 per cent in December, from 2.2 per cent in September.

The unemployment rate averaged 2.3 per cent last year, up from 2.1 per cent in 2007. This is the first time it has risen since the peak of 4 per cent in 2003, the ministry noted.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Two ways to stimulate employment | Jorbb.com

Many economic studies have shown that university graduates who enter the workforce during recessions earn substantially less than those who start work when the economy is growing. Researchers Philip Oreopoulos, Till von Wachter and Andrew Heisz - of the University of Toronto, Columbia University and Statistics Canada, respectively - studied Canadian university graduates between 1982 and 1999. Graduates entering the labour market during recessions started with lower earnings and caught up only after eight to 10 years.

In Singapore, the experience of young people graduating during recessions has been relatively easier because of rapid economic growth. A friend who graduated in accountancy during the 1985 recession, for example, remarked that her cohort was set back initially, with the luckiest getting jobs at a mere $600 a month. But they quickly caught up when the economy recovered. Today, many are well-paid chief financial officers.

However, the picture may not be quite so rosy in the future. As Singapore's economy matures, its long-term rate of economic growth will decline. From 1980 to 2007, Singapore's average growth rate was 7 per cent per annum. The official forecast is for future growth rates to average from 3 to 5 per cent per annum.

With lower overall economic growth, the prospects for graduating university and polytechnic students are distinctly worrying - and not just in the short term.

What should we do? Our greatest challenge now is to provide jobs. Policymakers and economists all over the world are debating how to stave off recession and provide employment: Would lower interest rates do the trick or bank guarantees? Spending on infrastructure or tax cuts?

Please visit link below for full article.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Why It Is Important To Measure Recruitment |Jorbb.com

In almost all firms there is a need to measure recruitment to find out if the way Human Resources handles manpower is fit for the needs of the organization. It is a sad fact of reality that not all people who are hired will succeed in the job. This has something to do with profiling the right kind of people that will fit the role of job.

To begin with, one must look at the minimum skills requirement of the employees that need to get hired. The issue with many recruiting teams is that they never really bother to filter applicants. They think that as long as the applicant has a similar experience with the job he needs to fill in, he is qualified. This is a mistake that needs to be addressed as it will always turn out that employees who do not pass the minimum skills requirement will not be productive.

How should recruitment effectiveness be measured?

There are a lot of ways to do this - three types of yield, so to speak.

The first type of yield is the first pass yield. The way this is calculated is simple. Divide the number of people who for hired by the number of people who were interviewed. Example: if there are two hundred people who got interviewed and only 50 were hired, the first pass yield is equivalent to 25%.

The second pass yield is calculated by the number of people who passed a second test by the number of the people who passed the first test.

And the last kind of yield is the RTY or roll through put yield. This is equivalent to the first pass yield percentage multiplied by the second pass yield percentage multiplied by the third process. This is part of measuring process capability.

Please visit link below for full article.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

NTUC says more youths aged under 30 will start feeling impact of downturn | Jorbb.com

More youths aged under 30 will start to feel the impact of the recession as the year progresses.

The unemployment rate for this group of youths was 4.1 per cent recently but NTUC said it is likely to go up this year.

However, the labour movement said, the figure is still far better than those in other countries at the moment.

And, among the 55,800 unemployed in Singapore, about 31 per cent of them are youths.

The present economic downturn is the first major one for many young adults.

To help prepare them if they get the axe, NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) held a retrenchment simulation exercise.

NTUC said there are about 6,000 immediate job vacancies across all sectors at the moment. But the main challenge when it comes to young adults is managing their own expectations.

NTUC Assistant Secretary General, Josephine Teo, said: “The terms and conditions of employment may not be what they expect. So the purpose of this activity (retrenchment simulation exercise) is also to help them to understand that challenges are now different and therefore they also have to adjust their expectations accordingly.”

Despite the downturn, Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean said Singapore could still rely on its strong dollar and reserves.

“Because if the whole economy is in doubt or it collapses and nobody even believes in your currency anymore - like it has happened in some countries like Iceland - then we’re really in deep trouble,” he said.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

More jobs for the unemployed | Jorbb.com

Plans to hire 4,500 people in the health industry has been brought forward in a bid to provide jobs for the workers who got retrenched.

The range of jobs provided includes health-care professionals, like nurses and pharmacists to administrative positions like the counter staff and telephone operators, with recruitment taking place effectively. The original plan was to hire 6,200 people over a period of 5 years, according to a report by The Straits Times. However, the credit crunch has pushed forward such plans to a level in tandem with demands for employment. The Ministry of Health intends to boost the existing pool of practitioners by 40%.

In addition, other government bodies like the Home Affairs and Education ministries will be recruiting 1,000 to 7,500 people this year respectively.

The Government Parliamentary Committee's deputy chairman Lam Pin Min said, "The acceleration of recruitment will be a win-win solution." He added the plan will help alleviate the manpower crunch in the health-care sector and provide career opportunities for those who are retrenched or considering a mid-career switch.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Freeze pay to save jobs | Jorbb.com

MORE Singapore companies would consider freezing salaries rather than axing staff when trying to deal with the financial crisis.

The approach from firms here differs from that of other Asia Pacific nations, according to a survey conducted last year by global consulting firm Watson Wyatt.

'In terms of salary freeze and slowdown in salary increment, the percentages from Singapore companies are higher than Asia-Pacific average,' said Associate Professor Mak Yuen Teen, the firm's Asia-Pacific regional research director.

It found that 38 per cent of Singapore respondents would opt for salary freezes while the average across Asia-Pacific was just 16 per cent.

'There are also relatively fewer Singapore companies (32 per cent) that consider layoffs as a contingency plan, compared to Taiwan (44 per cent), Philippines (61 per cent) or Malaysia (50 per cent),' added Assoc Prof Mak, who presented the survey findings on Thursday.

He said employers in the Asia-Pacific as a whole are more prepared to take on contingency measures, including hiring freezes, organisational restructuring, slowing pace of salary increases, layoffs and salary freezes.

About 84 per cent of employers in Asia-Pacific have established such plans, compared with 67 per cent in the United States and 80 per cent in Europe.

'I guess Asian companies are still thinking about the '97 financial crisis,' said Assoc Prof Mak.

He also warned that the established contingency plans may have reduced employee engagement, which may lead to increased human capital risks.

These risks are related to issues like loss of key personnel, skills shortage, knowledge management and succession.

Assoc Prof Mak said that it was important to ensure cost-cutting measures were implemented fairly.

'Continuous employee engagement requires fair human resource practices and processes. Fairness and communication are a large part of what's extremely important in employee engagement,' he said.

'Employers need to explain the reasons behind major decisions such as layoffs.'

He added that rewards should be linked to performance, and that strong strategic direction and leadership from top management will be needed during difficult economic times.

'While companies may need to take immediate measures in response to the crisis, they also need to carefully manage the long-term implications of these measures,' he added.

Assoc Prof Mak will also be speaking at the one-day Careers@Singapore forum Saturday at the Singapore Marriott Hotel.

The forum is organised by accounting body CPA Australia and will examine the employment market.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

2,000 throng job fair | Jorbb.com

SOME 2,000 people turned up to vie for 200 jobs up for grabs at a new ultra-luxury hotel at Sentosa on Friday.

The Capella is due to open on March 8 and has started a two-day walk-in recruitment drive for managerial and rank-and-file vacancies.

The drive was jointly organised by the Singapore Work Development Agency (WDA) and The Capella.

Among those seeking jobs were freelance workers, those looking for a career switch, and retrenched workers.

Mr Salim Bin Sajimin, 50, said: 'In Singapore, we really need to work till we say bye-bye. We don't have a backyard, cannot do gardening, so the only thing we need to do is work.'

Mr Salim, a technician with a maintenance firm, was retrenched late last year.

While most like him were trying their luck in the hotel industry, there were some who had been waiting for an opportunity to work in the hotel line.

Said Filipino Ms Emie Andanar who hopes to join the hotel as a Guest Relations Officer: 'I tried earlier, but there was no vacancy in August or September. The quota was filled up.'

The huge turnout surprised the hotel management.

'With the present situation, people are looking for jobs, so we anticipated many. But this is more than we expected,' said Mr Michael Luible, General Manager of The Capella.

Those who were interviewed at the drive will know if they have been shortlisted in about three weeks.

Selected hopefuls will move on to the next round of interviews.

Looking at the big turnout, Mr Jimmy Teo Choo Siong, 60, said: 'I don't think I will get a job, so many people. Old already, hard to get job.'

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Elder Singaporeans asked to work longer | Jorbb.com

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Thursday calls on Singaporeans to work as long as they can and keep themselves occupied after formal retirement to adjust to longer lifespan.

The prime minister said in a conference on reinventing retirement that because a larger proportion of the country's population will be elderly, people will have to re-calibrate the balance of work and retirement.

"People today are healthier and the nature of work has changed. We can continue to lead active and useful lives well into our old age," he said.

He said that demographic trends will require people to make adjustments both as individuals and as a society.

Individuals will have to rethink what retirement means to them, and the society will have to develop new arrangements to enable every individual to enjoy a productive, dignified life into his senior years.

The prime minister said that Singapore is going for a more flexible and practical approach, "We are legislating not to further delay the retirement age, but to require employers to offer re-employment to workers at 62 for another three years until65, though not necessarily in the same job or at the same pay," he said.

Lee said the employment rate of Singaporean workers aged 55 to 64 has risen steadily, and the government aims to push it up from 57 percent in 2008 to 65 percent by 2012.

By 2030, one fifth of Singapore's population will be 65 years and older, which is nearly one million people, three times the number today.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

AUD$150,000 for blogging - Australia offers "best job in world" on paradise island | Jorbb.com

An Australian state is offering internationally what it calls "the best job in the world" -- earning a top salary for lazing around a beautiful tropical island for six months.

The job pays 150,000 Australian dollars (105,000 US dollars) and includes free airfares from the winner's home country to Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland's state government said Tuesday.

In return, the "island caretaker" will be expected to stroll the white sands, snorkel the reef, take care of "a few minor tasks" -- and report to a global audience via weekly blogs, photo diaries and video updates.

The successful applicant, who will stay rent-free in a three-bedroom beach home complete with plunge pool and golf buggy, must be a good swimmer, excellent communicator and be able to speak and write English.

"They'll also have to talk to media from time to time about what they're doing so they can't be too shy and they'll have to love the sea, the sun, the outdoors," said acting state Premier Paul Lucas.

"The fact that they will be paid to explore the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, swim, snorkel and generally live the Queensland lifestyle makes this undoubtedly the best job in the world."

Lucas said the campaign was part of a drive to protect the state's 18-billion-Australian-dollar a year tourism industry during the tough economic climate caused by the global financial meltdown.

"Traditional tourism advertising just doesn't cut it sometimes and we are thinking outside the box by launching this campaign."

Queensland Tourism Minister Desley Boyle said some people might question whether it was risky to let an unknown person become an unofficial tourism spokesperson for the state.

"I think the biggest risk will be that the successful candidate won't want to go home at the end of the six months," she said.

"This is a legitimate job which is open to anyone and everyone."

Applications are open until February 22. Eleven shortlisted candidates will be flown to Hamilton Island in early May for the final selection process and the six month contract will commence on July 1.

Job-seekers can apply on www.islandreefjob.com.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Only 30% of S'poreans think they'll lose their job | Jorbb.com

TNS and Gallup International have just released the results of the survey, "The Voice of the People End of the Year Survey" today.

The survey polled people across 46 countries between October and December 2008 about their employment prospects. In Asia Pacific, more than 11,000 people aged between 15 and 64 participated in the survey and of these, 1,000 came from Singapore.

The Singapore results showed that 78% expect unemployment to increase, however, only 30% think there is a chance they may lose their job. The survey results also showed that Singaporeans are generally less optimistic as compared to the respondents globally about the economic outlook.

I. 63% feel more negative about the economic outlook as compared to a global average of 35%

II. Only 17% believe they would be able to find a new job fairly quickly while the global average stands at 31%.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Muslims can work in IRs | Jorbb.com

MUSLIMS in Singapore should not rule out working in the upcoming integrated resorts (IRs), as long as the jobs are not in the gaming sections, said Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim.

This issue has been discussed extensively with the Mufti, the highest Islamic authority in Singapore, and other religious leaders, he added.

He said he was confident that Muslim Singaporeans would make the right choices about jobs in the IRs, especially during these tough times.

'I'd be very sad if Muslims do not want to work there when things are very bad, because you want to work in a pure halal establishment,' he added.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Professional Conversion Programme for Tourism | Jorbb.com

The Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) works with the Community Development Councils (CDC) to operate five career centres in Singapore. These career centres provide a range of services including career-personality profiling, job referrals, advice on training and enhancement of job search related skills.

The career centres will beef up their resources to assist more Singaporeans. Starting this month, they will also ramp up the frequency of workshops where PMETs can pick up useful tips, knowledge and skills in job search and career transition, as well as rebuild their confidence and overcome mindsets that may hinder their efforts to seek re-employment.

To help and enable more PMETs to seize these opportunities and switch careers, WDA will work with economic agencies and tripartite partners to introduce more professional conversion programmes (PCPs) for the growth sectors. Over the last month, four programmes in pre-school education, pharmaceutical manufacturing, healthcare and workplace safety and health have been developed. And over the next three months, WDA will be working with its partners to roll out similar programmes for digital animation artists and stage managers and technicians. These are part of the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience, or SPUR, announced recently.

Over the next year, we expect 100 Singaporean PMET workers to benefit from the PCP for Tourism. They will pursue a Workforce Skills Qualifications Diploma in Tourism at TMIS, while at the same time, gain practical work experience through apprenticeships in tourism establishments in Sentosa in areas such as Food & Beverage, Events, Retail and Attractions. In addition, unemployed Singaporeans who are participating in the programme will receive a training stipend.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Contract workers are the first to go | Jorbb.com

Mr Lim Boon Heng, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, highlighted the plight of contract and part-time workers two Saturdays ago, when he pointed out that Singapore can expect this pool of employees to swell in the economic downturn.

The trend worries him as these workers rarely receive social security coverage, such as medical benefits and contributions to Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts. He has urged the National Wages Council to study the issue.

The number of contract workers has been rising steadily. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said there were 189,100 such workers last year, up from 180,200 in 2007 and 172,000 in 2006.

MOM defines contract workers as those who work part-time, full-time and on ad-hoc projects that last a few months.

They tend to be low-skilled, low-wage workers who are usually of low education and aged above 45. They work as cleaners, hawker assistants, packers and factory line operators, among other things, and earn between $500 and $1,200 a month.

Increasingly, however, more employees are being hired at the professional, managerial, executive and technical level on a contract basis. Some are hired for projects in the information technology (IT), research and banking sectors.

Click link for full article...

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Survey shows most firms still hiring fresh graduates | Jorbb.com

Thousands of fresh graduates are expected to enter the Singapore job market this year, flooding a labour pool that is seeing more retrenchments. Industries that are still hiring include accounting, engineering and sales.

Josh Goh, senior manager, Corporate Communications, The GMP Group, said: "The situation has changed. Fresh grads need to prepare themselves. They need to dress appropriately; they need to portray a very enthusiastic, willing-to-learn attitude."

Recruitment agencies said preparation, experience and presentation will help give applicants a winning edge, so internship and knowledge of company and job matter.

One also has to be prepared to accept a salary range that is on average about 5 to 15 per cent lower than last year.

Despite widespread hiring freezes, a recent survey of some 120 firms by the National University of Singapore (NUS) showed that 90 per cent of these companies will take in fresh graduates. The survey covered industries such as manufacturing, finance, transport and the public sector.

The Singapore Management University (SMU) said some students are delaying their graduation to explore more internships. More have also gone to career services centres for advice, especially those who are hoping to find a job in banking or finance.

Universities, in turn, have revved up their outreach activities.

Loh Pui Wah, director, Career and Attachment Office, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), said: "We are approaching companies such as new and emerging industries that traditionally do not hire fresh graduates. We are also targeting the SMEs, so we are aggressively going out to them to discuss employment opportunities and inviting them to NTU."

Some students, however, remain unfazed about the challenges ahead. Economics major Lim Wensi, who is graduating from SMU in July, is feeling upbeat about getting a job in the tourism sector.

He said: "I'm not overly anxious about not getting a job because I feel there are still jobs out there, especially in the tourism industry. I'm also prepared to do contract work, part-time work during this time until the economy picks up. Well, the back-up plan would be to go overseas to do a Masters."

Observers said contract work can build up crucial job experience until a permanent position comes along.


Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Cashing in on cafe fever | Jorbb.com

CAFES are increasingly becoming a popular hangout on campus, and entrepreneurial students and ex-students at the Singapore Management University (SMU) have capitalised on the trend to open more such outlets there.

Recent additions include Treehouse at the SMU's School of Information Systems, and Screme (which replaces the old Frujch) on the campus ground. These cafes join the ranks of Edmund's@SMU, which sells scrumptious cakes, kuihs and pastries at prices easy on the pocket.

Both Treehouse and Screme were set up in August by students, with some help from the SMU Students Association (SMUSA).

'We wanted to increase student vibrancy and have another place for students to hang out,' said Elizabeth Lim, a second-year student at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, who is one of Treehouse's three founders.

Her partners are friends Alicia Yik, also in second year at SMU, and third-year student Desmond Lim.

Treehouse started after the three won an SMUSA competition for cafes with their proposed submissions.

'I think what impressed the judges is that we offered a cafe which also offers the option for students to sit and have a proper meal, as opposed to the usual takeaway style we students are so used to,' said Alicia.

This is in contrast to the offer at Screme, located along the SMU Concourse, which focuses on easy-to-eat, American-style food such as sandwiches and bangers-and-mash.

It was tough to get the Treehouse venture started, but the trio say the SMUSA was a great help. It provided furniture for the cafe and other logistics.

It took the team four months of thorough planning during the entire summer holidays before the cafe was up and running in August when the academic term began.

The Treehouse team members tap on one another's skills to maximise their efficiency. For instance, Desmond, who studies accountancy, takes care of the number-crunching, while the girls play a bigger role in logistics and marketing.

'We focus a lot on mains (dishes),' they say. Signature dishes by their chef, Vasana Lee, include Thai and local delicacies such as mama's green curry, nasi lemak and tom yum soup. Other favourites at the cafe are the desserts, as well as Western dishes such as mushroom spaghetti with white wine and cream sauce.

The cafe is open only during the academic terms, and is closed during the summer and December holidays since students won't be around.

Treehouse is expected to break even in another 11/2 to two semesters, an impressive time frame for the startup.

The cafe draws about 100 customers a day, with most coming during lunchtime.

'Ultimately, I think it's the love for what we are doing which keeps us going. If you like what you are doing, you can do anything,' says Alicia. 'Sometimes I even feel like I'm a part-time student and full-time when it comes to the cafe.'

Isaac Tan, one of the five founders of Screme, agrees. 'The unique thing about our cafe is that everyone can make everything,' he says.

The team initially had big plans to make gourmet food at affordable prices, but found out that it would not be feasible given their resources and target customers.

'At the end of the day, it is fun (to run a cafe) - we have invested a lot of money and it is all about the valuable experience we get,' says Isaac.

This article was first published in The Business Times on December 29, 2008.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Help for retrenched workers | Jorbb.com

THE South West Community Development Council (CDC) has rolled out a series of aid schemes to help retrenched workers living in the south-western parts of Singapore.

A key feature of these new schemes is that the lower-middle class, and not only the bottom 20 per cent of society, can qualify for help.

Retrenched workers whose monthly household income are below $2,500, and are assessed to be in need of help, are eligible for the CDC's Interim Coping Package for Economic Downturn (iCope).

Among the new help schemes are a one-off $50 transport grant for axed workers to hunt for a job, workshops to help this group of workers get back on their feet and an internship programme for workers to try out a different job.

These workers are also eligible for existing help schemes by the South-West CDC, such as utilities vouchers and provision of food rations.

The CDC also intends to double the number of job fairs it organises from three to six a month.

It expects to spend $1.5 million next year for the iCope programmes.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

More part-time, contract staff | Jorbb.com

WITH the economic downturn, Singapore can expect the pool of part-time and contract workers to swell.

The trend worries Mr Lim Boon Heng, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, because these workers rarely receive social security coverage such as medical benefits and contributions to their Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts.

Singapore needs to address this problem, he said yesterday, suggesting that the National Wages Council (NWC) study the issue over the next two years.

His call comes as the NWC, prompted by the worsening economic crisis, prepares to reconvene next month to revise wage guidelines set this May.

Mr Lim warned that 'if we do not establish a national consensus on their terms of employment', Singapore could face a situation similar to that in Japan in the 1990s, when the number of these disadvantaged workers rose.

The former labour chief drew the comparison at a dinner to mark the 40th anniversary of electronics manufacturer Singapore Epson Industrial. He lauded the Japanese manufacturer, which has more than 800 employees here, as a socially responsible employer for treating its contract workers in the same manner as employees on its permanent payroll.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Employers & workers brace for sharp downturn in first half of 2009 | Jorbb.com

Singapore's economy started on a high note in 2008.

That was until September, when the downslide began, with economic growth now expected to come in slightly below the government's earlier forecast of 2.5 per cent.

And the worse is not deemed to be over yet, as employers and workers alike brace themselves for an even sharper economic downturn in the next few months.

Said Stephen Lee, President of the Singapore National Employers Federation: "The storm is coming, we haven't seen the bottom of the storm yet. How bad it will get, we would like to prepare our members.”

Economists said that as the cause is a financial one, it is tough to predict the downturn's length and depth.

Said Heng Chee How, Deputy Secretary-General of NTUC: "It is no point trying to guess a number. I think what is more productive is what we (should) do to keep retrenchments and the unemployment rate to as slow a pace as possible, so that if we can avoid, we avoid… if we cannot avoid, we delay… and if we cannot delay, we minimise - that should be the way to do it.”

To help achieve this, the Singapore government in December launched the S$600 million Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR).

Under SPUR, companies with excess manpower are being urged to send their workers for subsidised retraining.

The Workforce Development Agency (WDA) said it wants to see the programme even more widely implemented across more sectors in 2009.

Said Chan Heng Kee, Chief Executive of WDA: “Where necessary, we will put in place what we call conversion programmes. Because moving from one sector to another is not easy. So we have conversion programmes encompassing the skills needed to move into new sectors.

“Rather than retrenching the worker on the first resort, why not take advantage of the financial support provided by the government so that by the time the upturn comes around, you have a loyal worker who is also better trained, more productive, and can do a higher skilled job for your company.”

Among those targeted for such conversion programmes are displaced mid-career workers.

Chan added: "Even as we help both employers and workers manage the current downturn, I think we are also not losing sight of the future, we are slowly putting in place the building blocks of the continuing education and training system.”

Employers and workers in Singapore will be looking forward to some key announcements in January 2009.

First, the National Wages Council, which is made up of representatives from the government, employers and trade unions, will be meeting in January to re-examine its wage guidelines to ensure that the country remains economically competitive even during these difficult times.

Next, Singapore's Parliament has brought forward its Budget sitting to take place from the usual February to January 22.

In Budget 2009, the labour movement hopes the Finance Minister will announce measures to help workers strengthen job stability while the employers federation is looking at help from the government to lower operational costs.

"Singapore, being a very small open economy will get hit harder than our Asean neighbours,” said Lee. “But Singapore, with its strong balance sheet will be able to (weather) this downturn better than our neighbours."

For 2009, the Trade and Industry Ministry's growth forecast for Singapore is in the range of minus one to plus two per cent.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Retrenched workers can apply for jobs in Johor | Jorbb.com

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian workers retrenched from factories in Singapore can apply for jobs in Johor, Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said.

He said the ministry had set up an operations room in Johor Baru to register those retrenched and help match them with jobs available in Johor. There were at least 12,000 job vacancies in Johor Baru presently.

During a meeting with the labour attache from Singapore attended by employer and employee representatives in Johor last week, he said there was no indication that a large number of Malaysians retrenched in Singa-pore would return here.

“So, it is only an anticipation. They think it might happen,” he told reporters after attending the Young Indian Entrepreneurs Award 2008 here last night.

On the fate of 1,500 workers laid off by American hard-disk manufacturer Western Digital which had ceased operations in Sarawak, he said the company had already issued notices to workers about the impending retrenchment.

He said ministry officials had been in discussion with the factory and the company had offered the workers to be transferred to its factories in peninsular Malaysia.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Student part-timers in demand | Jorbb.com

WANTED: Work - any work - and willing to clock longer hours on the job.

That is the calling card of this year's batch of young applicants looking for year-end jobs, including those waiting for their O- and A-level results and undergraduates on holiday.

Despite more of them hoping to land positions in a bid to help out family finances in the downturn, they are in luck.

A check with employers and temping agencies shows bosses favouring the hiring of part-time rather than full-time staff.

Mr Tay Kok Choon, country manager of JobStreet Singapore jobseeking service, said recruitment of full-time staff has almost come to a standstill.

For firms whose business depends on seasonal demand, it is natural to hire 'part-time staff first before engaging them full-time', he said.

He said that the number of jobs available has remained stable but he has seen a two-fold increase in students registering for work and internships this year.

Ms Annie Yap, chief executive officer of recruitment firm GMP Group, said the retail and food and beverage sectors, as well as packing and gift-wrapping firms, are a big source of part-time jobs at the year end. This is always the case during the festive period.

Human resource companies said pay has not fallen despite the recession, with many employers offering a standard rate of $5 to $6 an hour.

Gloria Chiang, 16, who is waiting for her O-level results, recently found a job selling clothes for 10 hours a day over five days in a trade fair at the Singapore Expo.

'Everyone's rushing to find jobs but it seems more companies are also eager to hire part-timers, so it was quite easy to get a job,' she said.

One company, Dairy Farm, which runs Cold Storage and Guardian pharmacy among other businesses, has taken in more than 300 part-timers - including students - to work as sales assistants, cashiers and order-takers.

The Singapore Zoo is also hiring more part-time staff. There are now around 700 students working in all three Wildlife Reserves Singapore parks - Jurong BirdPark, Night Safari and the zoo.

Youth interviewed said earning money is their top priority.

'It was really important to find a job because the economy is so bad. I'm trying to work longer hours,' said Secondary 3 student Sean Ng, 17.

Logging nine-hour workdays since last month as a waiter at BBQ Chicken restaurant in West Coast Plaza, he can earn up to $50 a day. His mother is unemployed and gets a monthly allowance of $300 from her former husband.

Also aiming to be more self-reliant is Johan Burhanuddin, 16, a barista at Tully's Coffee in Far East Square.

The teen, who is waiting for his O-level results, can earn about $49 a day doing nine-hour shifts. He gives up to 40 per cent of his pay to his single-parent mother who is a section leader at Cold Storage.

He also gives his nine-year-old sister some money and is saving some for his education as he hopes to study in a polytechnic.

Employers have noted the desire of these young workers to do more.

At Spinelli Coffee Company, which has about 24 part-timers working this school holiday, a spokesman said: 'In general, students seem more willing to work longer hours and make more money.'

Over at Genesis BBQ, which runs the BBQ Chicken restaurant chain, chief operating officer Benny Ng said: 'We have had students asking for jobs as early as September. In the past, on average, they worked six hours, three days a week. This year, most are willing to work as long as eight hours, five days a week.'

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

New S$275,000 CDAC centre aims to empower the young and old | Jorbb.com

The array of services the new S$275,000 Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) centre at Bukit Panjang will offer include tuition for kids, job matching for adults and IT training for seniors.

More of such centres are planned if this one takes off.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is also Patron of the Council, did the honours as he unveiled the plaque on Saturday.

The council said that as it looks forward to turning 20 in 2012, it has a vision to do more to help the community.

This year alone, the number of needy students receiving financial support from the Chinese self-help group has risen 56 per cent to 7,500 this year, from 4,800 last year.

CDAC said it has also helped more job seekers this year, up 30 per cent from last year.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Companies with in-house training programmes can tap into SPUR funds | Jorbb.com

Companies with in-house training programmes will now be able to tap into funds under the newly-launched Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) as long as they meet certain requirements.

The change comes just three weeks after the start of the scheme.

SPUR is a government initiative which provides funds to encourage employers to send excess staff for training rather than laying them off in these lean times.

Labour chief Lim Swee Say said the number of positive responses to the new scheme has been encouraging.

Numbers have increased over the past week and now stand at more than 30 companies supporting over 3,000 workers.

Most of the take-up for SPUR in the past weeks has come mainly from the manufacturing sector.

However, Mr Lim said when the scheme was first announced, the scope of training and training locations were quite restrictive.

Given the feedback over the past three weeks, he said the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) have adapted the programme.

Mr Lim said: "If companies are able to put in place a well-structured training programme even if they may not be conducted in the CETs (Continuing Education and Training Centres), we will support it under SPUR as well."

There are 42 CETs or Continuing Education and Training Centres as at December 1.

Mr Lim said this flexibility in training location will depend first on the programme meeting the standards under the Workforce Skills Qualification System.

He said the economic situation is expected to worsen in the first quarter of next year.

And so, while agencies adapt the programme based on feedback from industry, they are also gearing up to expand the scope and capacity of the training programmes.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Some 40 companies have committed 2,500 workers for SPUR training | Jorbb.com

Half of 162 companies surveyed by the Singapore National Employers Federation said they plan to make use of the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) scheme to retrain workers and cut costs.

Since the S$600 million SPUR scheme was implemented on December 1, at least 40 companies have signed up for it, committing over 2,500 workers to training. They're mainly from the manufacturing sector and are the larger companies.

Uptake among small and medium enterprises has been limited.

Heng Chee How, Deputy Secretary-General, NTUC, said: "There is also nothing to stop a small company from taking advantage of SPUR just like the bigger ones would. The advantage inherent in SPUR is really a solid training subsidy, training fee subsidy for sending the worker to training. So you essentially pay one-tenth the cost. And then there is the absentee payroll."

However, absentee payroll, which ranges from S$6 to S$6.80 an hour has limited appeal for many companies who employ skilled degree holders.

Many in the banking and finance industry which is bearing the brunt of the economic storm, feel that the courses currently offered under SPUR do not match their skill set.

Associate Professor Annie Koh, dean, Executive and Professional Education, Singapore Management University, said: "This is a very different market from the Asian Financial Crisis. Now we have moved upmarket so a lot of our blue collared workers are getting the right jobs. But our white collared workers were not being reinvented.

“So this current crisis is a wake-up call for our service sector. So some of our white collared workers should now go deep, go specialised. We had too many of our degree holders coming up into service jobs that have generic skills. General skills will not equip you going forward."

There are currently 43 existing Continuing Education and Training Centres and another 10 will open by the end of next year.

Analysts believe the 10 new Centres will focus more on offering specialised courses for white collared workers. Currently, the centres focus more on offering courses for rank-and-file workers.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

North East CDC sees 25% spike in number of walk-ins looking for jobs | Jorbb.com

The North East Community Development Council (CDC) has seen a 25 per cent spike last month in the number of daily walk-ins of people looking for job opportunities.

Unlike the past, there is a significant number of professionals, managers and executives who are also seeking help.

Although not all of them have lost their jobs, some fear they may, and are thus looking for options.

It was not surprisingly then, that organisers saw a large turnout of some 2000 people at a mega career fair held at Downtown East on Tuesday.

And about half of the turnout had shown up in the first two and a half hours.

The fair had more than 800 jobs offered by 12 employers in the service industry, ranging from hotels, spas, F&B to security -- sectors which are still hiring despite the current economic downturn.

Training courses were also available for sign-up at the career fair.

Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also a Member of Parliament for the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, said such help measures will continue.

He said: “The North East CDC, besides this job fair in December, is having two more in the first quarter of next year. But you don't have to wait -- they have job placement services and they do have a register of jobs they can refer people to."

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Contract jobs becoming a trend: survey | Jorbb.com

THE job market today may be tough if you're looking for full-time work, but a contract position could well be your next best option amid the current economic downturn.

According to a new survey by global recruiter Robert Half International, just over one in two Singapore companies (52 per cent) said that they saw senior-level contract finance professionals as a viable staffing solution in a slowing economy - the highest rate among the 17 countries polled.

Nearly nine in 10 (88 per cent) said that they were open to hiring such professionals, well ahead of countries such as the United Kingdom (68 per cent), Australia (64 per cent) and Japan (29 per cent). 49 per cent of Singapore firms also said that they saw this trend of hiring contract staff increasing in the near future.

According to Robert Half Singapore's managing director Tim Hird, these latest findings in the Global Workplace Survey 2008 also revealed that companies want to bring in contract staff 'for specific projects or peak activity periods, making their engagement a variable rather than a fixed cost'.

He added that there has been a rise in demand for contract professionals in the past few months, as payroll costs account for about 40 per cent of a company's fixed costs, causing many bosses to be cautious about increasing their permanent headcount.

When asked why they felt contract professionals were becoming increasingly popular to recruit, Singapore companies cited reasons such as the ability to gain access to specialised skills, and a growing need to be more cost-efficient during the slowdown.

Said Mr Hird: 'Companies that hire senior-level contract finance professionals obtain immediate access to specialist skills and experience, which is especially critical for strategic turnkey projects. Companies can benefit from the added objectivity these consultants bring to their projects, as well as more effectively manage their costs.'

This is the first time Singapore has been included in Robert Half's global workplace survey since it was first launched in 2004. In all, nearly 5,000 finance and human resources were polled in countries, including France, Switzerland and New Zealand.

Among the companies in Singapore that have benefited from hiring a senior contract finance professional is IMS Health Asia, a business intelligence provider for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

The company had an urgent need to fill a position for one of its projects for a short term, and preferred not to hire a permanent employee due to the timeline and the one-off nature of the project.

Said IMS Health's director and finance leader Leigh Jason: 'It made sense to engage a senior-level contract professional for this particular project. Utilising this targeted approach, we were able to plug the resource into the project with minimal ramp-up time and realised immediate productivity.'

This article was first published in The Business Times on December 11, 2008.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

15 seconds pitch - Jorbb shows you how...|Jorbb.com

When you are at a business / social function, you have less than 15 seconds to make that first impression.

15secondpitch.com provides a quiz which will help you craft that 15 second pitch to market yourself, in a concise and compelling way.

Some guidelines:
Create a pitch — for every niche. This is very important. Develop a straight forward pitch for every industry that your focused on. If you dabble in photography but work nine to five as a caterer - you need one for each.

Use it effectively — and have a pitch prepared for every event that you attend. Be it a barbecue, fundraiser, or networking event - when you are least prepared is when you are most likely to have a random encounter opportunity.

Include a bold — compelling statement that peaks the interest of the listener and provokes them to want to know more. As Seth Godin says, “Your either remarkable or invisible.”

Image Source Flickr.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook Group. Now on Mobile!

Service grouses spill to Facebook | Jorbb.com

They are irate customers and they have found a way to air their grievances - on Facebook.
Some 2,000 people have joined a group called 'I am Singaporean and tired of service staff who can only speak Mandarin' on the popular social networking site.

At least 20 establishments - from big-name supermarkets and foodcourts to retail shops - have been singled out by members who have come forward to share frustrating experiences at these outlets.

Started in August by undergraduate Kavita Devi Thamilselvam, 22, the group has drawn many non-Chinese as well as Chinese who are not fluent in Mandarin.

'It's as though non-Mandarin speaking customers are not valued. It makes us feel like foreigners in our own country,' Ms Kavita told The Sunday Times.

Another member of the group, Ms Nor Hafiza, 28, said she once had to approach four different sales assistants at a supermarket before a Singaporean employee was able to answer her queries.

The early childhood educator was surprised one of them even asked if she could speak Mandarin.

'When you are serving a multiracial community, it's important to have employees who can speak English,' she said.

Most members in the group said they are not against hiring foreigners, but are frustrated at the lack of English training given to them.

Ms Kavita said she had initially set up the group so that like-minded customers would have an outlet to vent their frustration.

But she now wants to take the group's feedback to the establishments. Industry watchers empathised with such sentiments.

'This sends a clear signal to the operators that it is important to ensure the competency of their service staff,' said the president of the Consumers Association of Singapore, Mr Yeo Guat Kwang.

Singapore Retailers Association executive director Lau Chuen Wei felt that English tests may be a good idea to ensure a minimum level of English proficiency.

'If such tests can be implemented for domestic helpers whose contacts are largely confined to the families that they work with, what more for those whose contacts are with the larger community?'

First-time maids have to sit for an English entry test to ensure that they have basic numeracy and literacy skills to do household tasks and adapt to life here.

When The Sunday Times did its own tests on five big businesses listed on the Facebook group, three - Giant, Kopitiam and Food Republic - did not fare well, while two - Haagen-Dazs and Takashimaya - passed with flying colours.

When contacted, all except Takashimaya said they have already been conducting some form of English classes for staff.

Companies explained that recruiting English-speaking service staff in both F&B and retail industries is already challenging enough, as many people shun such jobs.

Most added that employees from China form barely 10 per cent of their total staff strength. Service-sector companies are allowed to employ foreign workers on work permits - up to 50 per cent of the company's total workforce.

Said a spokesman from supermarket chain Giant: 'It will take some time for them to learn a new language...We hope the Facebook group can give our staff a bit more learning time.'

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Singapore seen emerging Asia's weakest economy | Jorbb.com

Singapore is poised to be emerging Asia's worst-performing economy next year, when it is likely to remain entrenched in recession as the global downturn erodes demand for its exports, a Reuters poll shows.

The poll predicts the island state's gross domestic product (GDP) will contract 1.1 percent in 2009. That marks a rapid deterioration in the economic environment from two months ago as the global financial crisis has deepened - a similar poll in late September forecast 4.6 percent GDP growth in 2009.

"Singapore is particularly open to external trade - its export-to-GDP ratio is more than 180 percent, compared with an Asia average of 60-70 percent," said Eric Tsang, an analyst at Calyon in Hong Kong.

"So as U.S., European and Japanese consumers spend less that will hurt Singapore's exports and have a knock-on effect on the rest of the economy."

Economists see some rebound in 2010, forecasting 4.2 percent growth, but that would be well below average annual growth of 6.8 percent between 2003 and 2007.

Singapore slipped into recession - defined as two quarters of negative quarterly growth - in the third quarter.

Philip McNicholas, an economist at Ideal Global in Singapore, said the first quarter of next year would be especially tough - he forecasts GDP will drop at an annualised rate of 15 percent, seasonally adjusted, as exports plunge.

"That will be mainly due to a collapse in U.S. sentiment," McNicholas said. "The U.S. plans a fiscal stimulus package early next year, but it's got to get that through Congress and to the people, so that may not be until the end of Q1 or the start of Q2."

The government pledged $1.5 billion last month to help firms secure credit and said it was prepared to run a bigger budget deficit to boost the economy.

Manufacturing accounts for about a quarter of the economy and factory output fell 12.7 percent in October from September, seasonally adjusted, and 12.6 percent from a year earlier, led by sliding electronics and drugs output.

Manufacturing is expected to be harder hit next year as the downturn in advanced economies accelerates and job losses in the sector will rise as a result, analysts say.

Rising unemployment will dent consumer spending, which is not being helped by a decline in tourism since August.

As the weak economy will encourage the authorities to keep monetary policy loose, the Singapore dollar is likely to remain sluggish, the poll forecast.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Singaporeans unable to cope with job loss

Singaporeans are heavily dependent on their primary source of income - their jobs. The annual survey conducted by the AIA revealed just how important stable jobs are to the average Singaporean when it comes to maintaining financial survival.

Singaporeans are found to be increasingly less confident of being able to survive if they are unemployed. Only 19%, a significant drop from 27% in 2007, have confidence in surviving for at least two years without a stable source of income. This can be attributed to the fact that Singaporeans are highly aware of the dire financial forecasts, taking into consideration the higher costs of living as a result of increasing inflation. On top of that, only 25% of Singaporeans are able to sustain themselves after retirement.

Such pessimism is mainly due to the fact that a large percentage of Singaporeans rely heavily on their CPF (81%) and personal savings (74%). This suggests that Singaporeans are not forward looking enough to plan their retirement wisely, in spite of the fact that they recognise the importance and urgency in the matter. Only 9% own annuities and 18% say they own other retirement plans.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

88% of Singapore firms willing to hire contract professionals

88 per cent of companies in Singapore are open to the idea of hiring senior contract finance professionals, according to a survey by global human resource consultancy, Robert Half International.

With manpower costs accounting for about 40 per cent of a company's total expenses, the firms see this as a viable alternative to optimise human resource costs amid the current economic downturn.

In comparison, only 29 per cent of companies in Japan, 64 per cent in Australia and 68 per cent in Britain will consider hiring such specialists.

The survey also showed that 48 per cent of the Singapore companies polled said hiring contract finance professionals would allow the firms to gain access to specialised skills.

Six in 10 local companies said they would hire these contract staff for their expertise in strategic projects, while 34 per cent of the companies needed them for support on core business activities.

52 per cent of local companies considered short-term hire as a staffing solution to the slowing economy.

Nearly half of those polled said they expected the trend of hiring contract professionals to increase going forward.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Employment Rises To 77% Despite Downturn

Singapore's employment rose 2.7% to a 17-year high of 77% between June 2007 - 2008 despite the economic slowdown. This was due to more females and older workers joining the workforce.

70.4% of women aged 25 - 54 years work now compared to 69% a year ago, while employment of older workers aged 55 - 64 years increased by 1% to 57.2%.

Most new jobs created were in the Professional, Managerial, Executive and Technician (PMET) positions, especially in services.

However unemployment also rose to 3.3% in September 2008 compared to 2.4% last December with less staff hired in:

• wholesale and retail trade
• information and communications
• financial services
• administrative and support services

Sources:

• "Singapore Workforce, 2008", Ministry of Manpower (MOM) Press Release, 28 November 2008
  
  
• "2008 employment growth tempered by rising unemployment", Channel NewsAsia, 28 November 2008
  
  
• "Resident jobless rate in September put at 3.3%", The Business Times, 29 November 2008
  
  
• "Women lift employment rates to 17-year high", The Straits Times, 29 November 2008

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Bittersweet holidays for laid-off overseas Filipinos

Many overseas Filipino workers are coming home for the holidays, but it's going to be a bittersweet Christmas for most of them.

Melanie Dator is one of 1,500 overseas Filipino workers from Taiwan who had been laid off after their semi-conductor company shut down last month.

She said: "I am happy to finally see my family this Christmas. But I am sad that my job, which was supposed to be extended, suddenly ended."

The government fears that as many as 50,000 overseas Filipino workers could lose their jobs next year, due to the global financial crisis.

Marianito Roque, secretary, Department of Labour and Employment, said: "There are about half a million workers in totality in these areas, which include Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. We foresee that about 10 per cent of them may eventually be encountering situations of pre-terminated contracts."

Despite the huge number of displaced workers who are coming home this December, the Department of Labour said there is still no cause for worry as there are more Filipinos that are being deployed abroad, compared to those who have lost their jobs.

The government is still processing as many as 3,000 contracts a day for job placements in the Middle East and Europe.

"I was in the UK just about a week ago and there was news that more than 3,000 locals have already lost their jobs. In spite of that scenario, there was a sudden job opportunity and approval for the entry of 160 Filipino nurses. Given all these grim scenarios, there's still that glimmer (of hope) that Filipino workers will be in need, their services will be required," said Roque.

Last year, 9 million overseas Filipino workers sent home US$14.5 billion. That is equivalent to almost 13 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Sports events bring gains

THE sports industry in Singapore has crossed the billion-dollar mark for the first time, with positive spin-offs for the economy set to increase even further in the coming years.

The inaugural Formula One night race in September made a significant contribution, pumping an estimated $100 million into the Republic's economy.

The latest official number available for sports industry value was the 2006 figure of $906 million. With the same slate of events this year, adding the contribution from F1 would take this year's figure past the billion-dollar mark.

While Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Community Development, Youth and Sports) Teo Ser Luck expects the economic downturn to put a dent in growth in the next two to three years, he remained bullish in his outlook.

He was confident that the industry would still meet the target of contributing $2 billion to Singapore's gross domestic product by 2015 and bring employment in that sector to 20,000, up from the current 14,000.

He said: 'With a concerted effort, I think we can still achieve the 2015 target.'

The $2 billion target was made earlier this year and was a revision of the $1.4 billion-a-year mark announced in 2001 by then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Much of the growth - from a sector worth about $680 million in 2001 - came via spin-offs from a flurry of marquee events staged here the last few years.

The Aviva Ironman 70.3 triathlon and a leg of swimming's Fina Arena World Cup were among high-profile events which made their debut here last year, boosting a local calendar which already had highlights like golf's Barclays Singapore Open and the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon.

Along with F1, Singapore hosted golf's HSBC Women's Champions tournament for the first time this year as well.

Hotel accommodation for visitors, food and beverage spending and the construction of facilities such as spectator stands are some of the spin-offs from hosting such high-profile events.

Other events lined up are the Men's Junior Hockey World Cup and Asian Youth Games next year, the 2010 Youth Olympic Games and the 2011 World Netball Championship.

Mr Teo said: 'In this downturn, sports could also help create jobs. The YOG has added about 200 jobs for example, with more to come as we get closer to the event.'

When it is ready in about three years, the private-sector driven Sports Hub at Kallang and motorsports track at Changi will also provide big boosts.

Twenty20 cricket matches and an Asean club football league are set to be held at the Sports Hub, while the permanent track is slated to host at least two international-level races such as the A1 Grand Prix or World Touring Car Championship.

Also contributing to the industry's growth, according to Singapore Sports Council (SSC) chief executive Oon Jin Teik, is a flush of corporate sponsorship.

OCBC Bank recently pumped in $1 million to be the title sponsor for next year's Cycle Singapore.

POSB Bank spent $1.4 million on the ongoing Everyday Champions Award, while Barclays is understood to be spending about $2 million annually for its sponsorship of the Singapore Open.

Sport's growth here mirrors a worldwide trend. A Pricewaterhouse Coopers study estimates that the global sports market would grow from 2004's US$82.8 billion (S$125 billion) to US$111.1 billion next year.

But sports still remains a small contributor to Singapore's $243 billion GDP, with tourism contributing about 3 per cent and the biomedical sector (including pharmaceuticals) chipping in with about 5.5 per cent.

Still, it is not just the dollars and cents from the sports industry that is valuable.

Standard Chartered economist Alvin Liew said: 'The local economy is worth over $200 billion, so sports is less than half a per cent of that.

'But the...reputation and goodwill we build up for hosting international events...there's a lot more indirect impact.'

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

NTUC wants working conditions of casual, contract workers improved

Singapore's labour movement wants to improve the working status of its some 183,000 casual and contract workers.

NTUC said many of them do not even have proper CPF contributions - a key pillar in Singapore's social safety net.

Madam Hoon is a typical casual and contract worker in Singapore - working on piecemeal jobs, and concerned if she will have a job the next day.

She said: "I am now a part-time promoter and I worry about the boss not calling promoters like us to promote their products. Maybe I will lose my job. I hope NTUC will provide more opportunities for people like me to get more jobs."

The number of such workers in Singapore has grown from about 80,000 from the days outsourcing began, to some 183,000 today. And the number does not include foreign workers.

NTUC said that regardless of whether a staff is a permanent or casual worker, it is important to look after their welfare.

Zainudin Nordin, director, Unit for Casual and Contract Workers, NTUC, said: "Some of them do not get CPF payments, they do not get medical leave, they do not have annual leave and they do not have a proper contract for their work. It is more like a verbal agreement. These are things that are worrisome.

"Sometimes, the situation would lead to the mismanagement of the staff. As a worker, whether casual or contract or permanent, they have to know their rights. So we are trying to increase this awareness by educating them and engaging them."

Government agencies must also ensure that regulations on employment are observed by companies.

But Mr Zainudin agrees that things are not going to be easy for these workers, especially during the current global economic downturn.

He said; "These vulnerable workers who are in the low-wage, low-skilled and lowly-educated (group) will be, in my view, one of the first few to be hit, and we are concerned about this...even though there is an economic downturn and global slowdown, the labour movement believes that employers can work closely with us to ensure that the workers should not be the first to go."

One way to help these workers is to send them for training under the lifelong learning and continuing education framework.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Companies introduce various measures to help save jobs

The economic downturn has led some firms in the region to retrench staff in a bid to cut costs. But others are trying other measures to preserve jobs while surviving the current difficult climate.

Shipping firm "K" Line is encouraging employees to attend courses in areas such as Information Technology and Accounting while business is slow. The company is also sponsoring up to 70 per cent of their course fees.

Furthermore, "K" Line is sending about 16 employees for training on board its container vessels next year – double the number this year.

Kenichi Kuroya, managing director, "K" Line Pte Ltd, said: "We do not want to see the loss of human resources which we interpret as a kind of loss of culture for the company... It takes a long time to establish relations with the staff.

"The vessel fleet is expanding which would automatically link to the expansion of the business, requiring more human resource power. Based on those commitment or purchase contracts, we will maintain job opportunities and increase a certain number of jobs needed by our company."

Chemical firms are seeing slower orders and contracts as well.

Rajendran Govindarajoo, president of the Chemical Industries Employees' Union, said: "If they don't do anything, the company will be losing a lot, a lot of money. Salaries in Singapore are pretty high, if they can't afford it and they close down, they'll move back to their own countries."

Some firms are also considering measures such as temporarily shutting down plants for maintenance.

By executing various measures during this downturn, unionists and employers hope this will show parent companies of multinational corporations that Singapore is determined to save jobs.

Nonetheless, if foreign parent firms still insist on retrenching, it is hoped that their Singapore offices will be their last choice for downsizing.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

UPS arrows on disability

UPS is hiring but this time round, the package delivery company will be on the hunt for people with disabilities (PWDs) to fill the positions.

Commenting on its participation in the Disability Awareness Public Education Job Fair held last Saturday, country human resources senior manager for UPS Singapore Jeff McLean says the company looks beyond differences when hiring. In fact, he says its recruitment process is "hire based on merit, development potential and their ability to contribute to the company".

While UPS currently only employs five PWDs, McLean says it is his aim to hire more as there are vacancies available for both blue and white collar positions. Furthermore, once disabled candidates are hired, additional coaching and training sessions would be provided for them so they could assume positions of greater responsibility later on in their career. McLean says, "These not only ensures that employees enjoy their work but that they perform to the best of their abilities and continue to make important contributions to our company."

When asked if there were any concerns initially in adapting the work environment to suit the disabled workers' needs, McLean says the impact to the budget is irrelevant as it is worthy to invest in people assets.

The facilities provided for disabled employees include disabled user-friendly washrooms, wider walkways for wheelchair users and allocation of parking lots close to office entrances. McLean says this is especially useful for them on rainy days.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

S'poreans' top worry - jobs

HAVING a rice bowl - and eating from it - matters most to Singaporeans.

A new survey has found that even before Singapore announced it was in a technical recession in October, Singaporeans' greatest fears were unemployment and insufficient food.

Synovate, a global market research company, surveyed the consumer attitudes of 7,400 respondents in 10 countries, between the months of August and November.

The firm found that four out of 10 Singaporeans listed 'losing my job' as their top fear going into a recession.

Their second biggest fear was not having enough food.

Indeed, when asked which items they would first give up when tightening their belts, none of those surveyed said they would cut back on food.

Nearly three out of 10 Singaporeans said holidays would be the first to go. Next on the list was branded items - which 18 per cent of respondents said they would cut out first - while 13 per cent would forgo high-tech gadgets.

Companies across all sectors are retrenching staff. The latest figures show that the resident unemployment rate in Singapore is at 3.3 per cent, up from 3.1 per cent in the previous quarter.

US private employers cut 250,000 jobs in November, an unexpectedly large number and the biggest in seven years, while the service sector, which powers most of the economy, posted its worst slump on record. Wednesday's reports were the latest signs that the slide in the US job market is nowhere near bottom and suggested Friday's government payrolls report could exceed current expectations for 320,000 job losses in November.

Companies are cutting jobs at breakneck speed, with Credit Suisse, Nomura Holdings, State Street Corp and Canon Inc announcing job cuts totalling almost 10,000 on Wednesday.

Clearly, the fear of losing one's rice bowl is not unique to Singaporeans.

Respondents in six out of the 10 countries - including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Russia - surveyed also said that was their biggest fear.

Being unable to pay mortgage or rent was Americans' top fear, followed by the fear of losing their jobs.

Among the responses from those surveyed in other countries included the fear of losing money from investments.

In shopping capital Hong Kong, however, 14 per cent of respondents said they were afraid of 'giving up luxuries.'

Meanwhile, 56 per cent of Singaporeans surveyed said they have spent less on luxury goods in the last six months.

They have also cut down in impulse buying - and even necessities.

Marketers said even in tough times, brands need to continue to invest in ensuring they remain visible to consumers.

Mr David Mayo, vice president of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Asia Pacific, said: 'The people who will benefit are those who can deliver and provide an all-encompassing customer experience.'

'A recession is the point to pick up new customers. And coming out of a recession is when you make them loyal customers,' he added.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Grads face up to fading job prospects

Thanks to the global financial crisis, university students - especially those due to graduate next year - are fast coming to terms with the rising difficulty in landing their ideal job.

Companies are still recruiting from campuses but compared with the heady days of 2006 and early 2007, the number and range of jobs available are taking a hit.

This has led to many students coming up with a Plan B - such as staying in school to pursue a Master's degree while waiting for the job market to recover.

According to the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), companies which ran campus recruitment drives in the past have returned this year. These include major banks and financial institutions.

However, there has been a 'reduced number of placements' and the 'types of roles available have changed,' said director of NTU's undergraduate career services, Joyce Seidl-Tan. As the financial crisis unfolds, for instance, more risk management and other mid and back-office functions have opened up.

'Firms are still hiring but very selectively,' observed Jason Low, a 23-year-old accountancy student who is graduating from NTU next year.

The cautious mood contrasts with the bright hiring landscape one or two years ago. An NTU release in June said that nine out of 10 business school graduates last year found jobs before graduation and the top students earned between $8,000 and $15,000 monthly. Of the entire Class of 2007, about two-thirds received multiple job offers.

The continued volatility in financial markets could affect the situation further. While companies kept to their hiring plans for most of the year, 'it was only in October, when the economic volatility hit a peak, that recruiters took a wait-and-see approach to hiring,' said NUS Business School's director of career services, Joan Tay.

'The global financial and economic situation is still uncertain and the job market could decline in all sectors in the coming months,' said director of career services at the Singapore Management University (SMU), Ruth Chiang. 'Students may not receive multiple job offers now and have to be prepared to accept job offers as they come.'

The climate is putting a dampener on wage expectations. 'As employers are confronted with the need to adjust their cost base according to market conditions, salary levels for fresh graduates of 2009 are likely to be lower than the entry level salaries seen in 2007 and possibly in 2008,' said NTU's Mrs Seidl-Tan.

But there is a bright spot amid the gloom. SMU's Lee Kong Chian School of Business has noticed that the difficult employment market has made graduating students evaluate their future careers more carefully.

'The tough job market... can also be a catalyst to more unconventional career paths which may ultimately be more rewarding,' said Doris Sohmen-Pao, director of SMU's MBA programme.

As NTU's Mr Low put it: 'A lot of people say it's best to start out in a bear market because you get to ride the waves and learn a lot from that.'

Some students though, may prefer to pick up another degree and delay entering the workforce. NUS Business School final-year student Wang Fan, 22, has already applied to several local and overseas universities to pursue his Masters in financial engineering.

This is in the event that his attempts to land his 'ideal' job as a trader with one of the banks here draw a blank. Some banks have already imposed hiring freezes or are retrenching staff.

The school's vice-dean for undergraduate studies, Quek Ser Aik, said that about 20 graduating students have already expressed their wish to use the economic slowdown as an opportunity to further their studies instead of entering the job market.

He said: 'The crisis is surely a concern for our students and for us. We will certainly try our best to accommodate our students' requests should they want to stay on to further their studies.'

As for junior college or polytechnic students entering universities, the financial mayhem is unlikely to sway interest in finance-related degrees, said the local varsities.

'We believe that banking and finance remains a very desirable field to our students and those who are keen on this area would probably not be deterred,' said Valerie Du Toit-Low, associate dean of undergraduate business in NTU.

SMU's Mrs Sohmen-Pao also said that postgraduate programmes, such as those related to management and finance, would retain their market value with or without a financial crisis.

'Skills such as leadership, strategic management and finance will remain evergreen and relevant to any profit organisation across any industry. We are optimistic that subscription for postgraduate programmes will remain strong even while the market goes on the road to recovery'.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Opening of the Adult Learning Symposium and the Launch of the Institute for Adult Learning

Speech by Mr Gan Kim Yong, Acting Minister for Manpower from MOM's website.

Distinguished Speakers and Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning

Introduction

I am pleased to join you today for the opening of the Adult Learning Symposium and launch of the Institute of Adult Learning or IAL in short. The launch of IAL is an important development in our efforts to build the national capability in adult learning.

Adult Education in the Early Years

2. We embarked on adult learning as early as the 1960s. The Adult Education Board was formed then, tasked with planning, regulating and implementing adult education. In the 1980s, three national Continuing Education and Training (CET) programmes were launched by the then Vocational and Industrial Training Board. They were better known as BEST (The Basic Education for Skills Training), WISE (Work Improvement through Secondary Education) and MOST (Modular Skills Training). These programmes helped adults acquire technical skills qualification as well as receive basic education in English and Mathematics. In 2000, the introduction of the National Skills Recognition System (NSRS) and the 1-Institute- 2 Systems framework (1I2S) in the Polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education helped adults further improve their skills.

The CET Masterplan and the Need for A Quality CET Profession

3. In 2003, the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) was formed to develop a competitive workforce and build a strong national CET infrastructure. WDA has since introduced the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) system, Employability Skills System (ESS) as well as established CET Centres in growth areas.

4. Earlier this year, we announced a National CET Masterplan to prepare our workers for the future, help them seize opportunities in new growth areas and advance their careers through the acquisition of skills. We will ramp up the national CET training capacity, ensure better integration of the CET and our formal education systems; and reach out to more workers. We now have 42 CET Centres. We will set up more CET Centres and the number of training places will be ramped up significantly from 110,000 in FY 08 to 220,000 in FY 09 through the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience, or SPUR.

5. But expansion in our training capacity alone will not be effective unless the training programmes are of high quality and we have professional adult trainers to deliver them. Training of adults is quite different from the training of younger students. Adult trainers must be equipped with the right skills.

6. Singapore's formal education has been well regarded internationally. One important factor of our success is the quality of our teachers and the quality of the teacher-training programmes offered by the National Institute of Education. Similarly, training of CET trainers and adult educators plays an important part in ensuring that CET trainers are adequately trained and equipped to train adults. As we build up our infrastructure under the CET Masterplan, there will be greater demand for CET trainers. The set up of the IAL is therefore timely. The IAL will be dedicated to training and developing qualified adult trainers, raising the standards of the profession and conducting research to continually improve our CET system over time. This is an important milestone in our journey towards a first-class CET system.

Role of IAL

7. The IAL will play a leading role in three areas: the development of the CET profession in Singapore through establishing standards and delivering training for CET professionals, nurturing a community of CET professionals in Singapore, and advancing thought leadership in adult learning so that we can continually improve the effectiveness of our CET programmes.

Developing Professional Pathways and Training

8. Firstly, IAL will develop the CET profession through establishing clear professional standards and pathways for adult educators. From 2009, IAL will introduce a new national Professional Development Framework (PDF) targeted at adult educators. This is developed in collaboration with the polytechnics, ITEs, private training organisations and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), so that it serves the needs of trainers from different backgrounds. The framework outlines clear qualifications, skills and competencies needed for CET professionals, and also serves as a guide for development, performance and career pathway for adult educators.

9. Under this new framework, the IAL will develop and deliver programmes to train and upskill adult educators. It will deliver a range of nationally recognised WSQ programmes and qualifications. These will go beyond the current range of certificate-level programmes. IAL will introduce the new Diploma in Continuing Education and Training in April 2009.

Growing a Community of CET Professionals

10. Secondly, IAL will work with adult educators to grow the community of CET professionals in Singapore. This includes CET professionals in polytechnics, private training organizations, consultant trainers and curriculum developers, trainers in the SAF and companies which have their own accredited training centres. IAL will help to build this community through a professional membership and development scheme, which will also be a key component of the Professional Development Framework.

11. This scheme is similar to those currently available in other countries such as the UK Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD). Administered by IAL, the scheme will facilitate the recognition of the professional standing, performance and competencies of CET professionals. It will establish a code of professional ethics underpinning the roles and responsibilities of CET professionals. It will also serve as a platform where the professionals can learn from one another.

Advancing Thought Leadership in Adult Learning

12. The third area where IAL will play a key role is in advancing thought leadership by undertaking research in adult learning and best practices in CET. This research will be translated into direct and practical inputs into improving our CET system. In this regard, IAL will leverage on its capability to provide support and advisory services in curriculum, assessment and training practices to the new CET Centres established by WDA. In addition, we can expect more programmes like today's symposium, with both international and local thought leaders, to engage our practitioners.

A New Professionals Conversion Programme for CET Professionals

13. With the current economic downturn, the imperative to provide training to re-skill and up-skill workers to enhance their employability has become even more pressing. IAL will play a key role in supporting SPUR, by improving the quality and increasing the number of trainers. As part of this effort, IAL will introduce a new Professionals Conversion Programme for those who wish to transit to a new career as a CET professional.

Conclusion

14. In conclusion, let me reiterate that all of you working in the CET field play a key role in helping workers upgrade their skills and employability, as well as in raising the overall competitiveness of our workforce. It is therefore important that you continue to enhance your professional skills and capabilities. It is ultimately through your professionalism that the goal of a vibrant, skilled and competitive workforce can be achieved.

15. I wish the Institute for Adult Learning every success, and look forward to seeing it strengthen the CET landscape and contributing to the advancement of our workers through quality training.

Thank you.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Central CDC's survival guide helps residents through recession

Singaporeans can survive this recession by making small adjustments in their lifestyles and lending a helping hand to their neighbours.

To help achieve this, the Central Singapore Community Development Council (CDC) has launched a survival guide in October to give residents the tools and guidance to ride through the recession.

The guide has three main features, which include simple savings tips that can help cut down expenditure by up to S$1,330 a year, especially by saving electricity in several ways.

The guide also has information on how residents can land a job in new growth industries. It contains the numbers of important helplines for residents if they need information on jobs and financial assistance, or if they just want to talk to someone.

Central Singapore CDC will distribute the guide via its bi-monthly newsletter, "Voices", to all 280,000 households in its district by mid-December.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Women lift employment rates to 17-year high

EMPLOYMENT rates, boosted by more women in the workforce, are at a 17-year high, a report by the Manpower Ministry released yesterday showed.

Some 835,000 women are now in the market, compared to 818,100 a year ago, mainly due to the efforts by the Government and the unions to get more women back to work.

More women are also employed: Seven in 10 women aged between 25 and 54 are working, up from just over six in 10 a year ago.

The employment rate for those aged 55 to 64 crept up by 1 percentage point to 57.2 per cent. This, again, was due mainly to more older women finding jobs.

These gains pushed the employment rate for locals - Singaporeans and permanent residents - up by half a percentage point to 77 per cent. This is the highest since 1991, when data was first compiled.

In fact, the rosy picture of how the workforce was faring in the middle of this year is unlikely to continue next year, said human resource consultants, who expect the employment rate to drop.

This is because of the retrenchments taking place now and the cautious hiring outlook by companies, said Mr Paul Heng, managing director of NeXT Career Consulting, which specialises in outplacement services.

'From 20 to 30 retrenchments a week, companies across all sectors are now retrenching 80 to 120 a week,' he said.

Already, latest figures show that the resident unemployment rate is at 3.3 per cent, up from 3.1 per cent in the previous quarter.

Singapore's local labour force is now 1,928,300 strong. Of those employed, more than half are in professional, managerial, executive and technical jobs.

In contrast, less than one in five people, or around 17 per cent, work in low-wage full-time jobs.

The workforce is now also more educated compared to a decade ago. Almost two in five, or 38 per cent, have tertiary education - up from 25 per cent in 1998.

The report also said that the median monthly income for full-time workers rose by 11 per cent to $2,590 from a year ago.

But after taking into account inflation, which rose by 6.4 per cent in October, the rise in real incomes was just 4.6 per cent.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Singapore's employment rate rise to new high of 77% in 2008

Despite a more challenging economic outlook, employment in Singapore rose to a new high of 77percent in 2008 from 76.5 percent in 2007, government data showed on Friday.

The Singapore Manpower Ministry said in a workforce report that the rise was driven by both growth in the resident population and female labor force participation rate along with continued employment of older workers.

However, the country's jobless rate rose from a decade low of 2.4 percent in December last year to 3.1 percent in June this year, reflecting more cautious hiring sentiments amid the economic slowdown, said the report.

The report also noted that the seasonally adjusted resident jobless rate rose further to 3.3 percent in September this year amid the economic contraction and continued weakening in economic outlook.

The ministry said the employment rate of residents aged 55 to 64 years also increased by a percentage point over the previous year to 57.2 percent this year, due to continuing efforts to enhance the employability of older persons.

It also found that more women who were previously outside the labor force were taking up jobs.

As for income, the report said the median monthly income for full-time employed residents rose over the year by 11 percent to 2,590 Singapore dollars (1,715 U.S. dollars) in 2008.

After adjusting for higher inflation, the increase in median income was 4.6 percent compared with 5.5 percent in 2007.

The report said the income growth in 2008 partly reflects the spillover effect from the strong economic performance last year and the higher proportion of Professional, Managerial, Executive and Technician (PMETs), whose income is typically higher, among employed residents in 2008.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Retail Training and Employment Centre has been launched

A new S$1 million Retail Training and Employment Centre has been launched in conjunction with the upcoming mall at Orchard Road, 313@Somerset.

313@Somerset is being developed by Land Lease Retail Singapore.

The project is the first major fully integrated retail development in Asia undertaken by the company.

Lend Lease said the new centre is aimed at providing free retail training to the employees of retailers at the mall.

The centre is expected to be fully operational by the middle of 2009 and will train about 1,000 employees and potential employees during its first year.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Amid layoffs, contract work may see boom

SOME outplacement firms which help companies find jobs for their retrenched workers said all signs point to even more lay-offs in the first quarter of next year.

But on the bright side, contract work opportunities look set to rise.

Central Singapore CDC has tied up with companies to conduct five direct job placement exercises before the end of the year. They are sending out a survival guide with money-saving and job-search tips to 280,000 households in the district next month.

For the last five years, the CDC has also run support groups to help the retrenched. These will be expanded as demand grows.

Singapore Community Development Council general manager Agnes Kwek said: “Our numbers have been creeping up by about 10 per cent over the year. Nevertheless, we have made some contingency plans.”

“I think if we pass a certain critical number, we would look to ramp up manpower deployment at our job centres so that we can attend to more job seekers. We would look to lengthen our opening hours and maybe even opening full days onSaturdays should the situation require.”

The Chinese Development and Assistance Council is also considering deploying more manpower. It has seen a 30-per-cent rise in job seekers since August. The self-help group is also tapping on the Careerlink Plus Centre to help the unemployed. It is working with the Employment and Employability Institute to encourage job seekers to attend job preparation exercises.

Recruiters are seeing proactive job search efforts even by those who are still employed. International recruitment firm Robert Walters has so far seen placement rates dropping by up to 15 per cent.


Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Changes To Singapore's Employment Act

Singapore's Employment Act was updated for the first time in 13 years to offer more protection for vulnerable workers and reflect current employment norms.

Among the changes taking effect from 1 January 2009:

* confidential staff and workers earning up to S$2,000 per month will be covered by the Act
* junior executives earning up to S$2,500 per month will be able to settle salary claims through the Labour Court
* paid public holidays and sick leave will be extended to all employees
* part-time employees will include those who work less than 35 hours per week
* higher fines for offences such as failure to pay salaries on time

Sources:

* "Employment Act revised to bring law up to date with market changes", Channel NewsAsia, 18 November 2008

* "Employment Act changes to benefit more workers", The Business Times, 19 November 2008

* "Employment Act keeps pace with changes", The Straits Times, 19 November 2008

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

Singaporeans welcome move by Civil Service to cut pay

Singaporeans welcomed the move by the Civil Service to reduce pay, and some said the wage cut announcement did not come as a surprise.

Civil Service wage cut may not be significant in terms of the overall government expenditure.

What is more important is the signal it sends to the private sector of the cost cutting options available for firms to stay viable.

In response, National Wages Council Chairman Professor Lim Pin said the Civil Service pay cut is in line with the council’s guidelines, and added that it’s not unexpected that bonus payments would be affected as a result of the business downturn.

Experts believe more measures will be announced in January’s Budget to help Singaporeans, as well as enhance the country’s competitiveness in the rough days ahead.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!

E2i to triple staff strength for implementation of SPUR

The Employment and Employability Institute (E2i) is tripling its staff strength to meet the challenges of the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR).

It is one of 42 Continuing Education and Training (CET) centres to benefit from the S$600 million set aside for the two-year programme.

E2i plans to boost its staff strength from the current 30 to 100 soon, in order to cater to the targeted 50,000 workers whom the labour movement wants to retrain.

The Community Development Councils (CDCs) also have an important role to play to ensure that employees benefit from SPUR. They could refer those who go to them for job assistance to the relevant CET centres for retraining.

Full Article Source & Image Source.
Jorbb gets Jobs for You! Job Seekers join Free / Employers Post 1st Ad Free. Earn credits to exchange great gifts.
Follow Jorbb on Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook Group and Mobiles/iPhones!