10,000 to lose jobs in Q1

MORE than 10,000 workers are likely to be laid off in the first three months of this year, said labour chief Lim Swee Say who gave an early estimate of retrenchment numbers on Tuesday.

It is an increase from 7,000 layoffs in the previous quarter, but analysts believe the final figures for January to March could be higher.

'We cannot stop retrenchment from going up,' Mr Lim told some 800 civil servants at a conference on organisational learning. "But we die die, must try our best to help every one of these retrenched workers to go back to the job market again to learn new skills, to take on a new job.'

This is the first time that official projections for first quarter retrenchment figures for both the unionised and non-unionised sectors are made public.

In a CNBC interview aired last Friday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the unions will see nearly 5,000 layoffs in this period.

Referring to the 5,000 figure, Mr Lim said: 'If you multiply that to include the whole non-unionised sector, the number would easily exceed 10,000 for the first quarter.'

This means retrenchment figures for the first three months will surpass the usual average of 10,000 layoffs in a year, signalling the extent of the impact caused by the global financial crisis. Official first quarter retrenchment figures from the Manpower Ministry will be released only in late April.

Analysts interviewed said job losses could be much higher than 10,000 if early termination of part-timers and contract workers are included. Employers prematurely terminated the contracts of 1,500 workers in the previous quarter, on top of laying off 7,000 workers.

But Mr Lim also assured Singaporeans that there are jobs available.

He said the Employment and Employability Institute has a list of 12,700 job openings, from sectors across the board such as in services, pharmaceuticals and the public sector. About four in ten of these jobs pay more than $2,000 a month.

'Jobs are still being created, demand is still there. What we have to do is to keep narrowing this gap in terms of skills, mindset and expectations between the jobs and job seekers,' he said.

- The Straits Times