Dear Readers
I have ended my 2-month visit in Singapore and will return to Sydney tonight (12 Dec) to be with my family. I have missed them greatly and hope to spend Christmas with them.
During this period, I have met up with some of the readers and realised that there are still pockets of people that are unemployed. Most of them are in their 40s and professional. My word to them is not to give up and keep on looking as the job market is much better than six months ago.
We also conducted two networking sessions in Nov and Dec 09 and have seen good support.from readers here.
For those who found new job, I also realised that the pay offered is lower than their last drawn salary. One PMET also has a 70% pay cut when he found a new job three months ago. He was jobless for a year.
The competition now is not with fresh local graduates but foreigners who came in the thousands and compete for jobs with unemployed PMETs. It is indeed now an employer’s market who suddenly have more choices to fill up potential openings in the work force. There is hardly any legislation to protect our local workers here.
Foreign workers will form a huge workforce down the road and Singaporeans need to be able to compete squarely with them by constantly upgrading their skills. Due to their ability to take up low wages, foreign workers will delight our small and middle enterprises (SME) with tight budget. It is no wonder that our local workers all want to flock to work for the government sector with better perks and protection. So far, foreigners still have no entry to civil service jobs yet.
In conclusion, I foresee that our local workforce will face competition by the continual inflow of foreign professionals. Being younger and cheaper, they will not entirely be welcomed by the local workforce.
I want to take the opportunity to thank readers for their support throughout this year and wishing you a very Merry Christmas ahead!
Gilbert
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