2009 – a year best left forgotten
Written by: Gilbert Goh
Transitioning.org is happy to have celebrated this year with our loyal readers. Many have told me that 2009 is best left forgotten. Many also hope that the new year 2010 will be a better year for them. I couldn’t agree more.
This year also marked the death of our favourite pop icon Michael Jackson and more significantly America chose a black man as their President for the first time.
The financial turmoil however arrived rather suddenly in the beginning of the year as huge giant financial institutions (AIG, Lehman Brothers, Citibank, BOA) announced that they were affected by the high-yield mortgage loans dished out to millions of Americans buying homes without any form of collateral or deposit. Americans who could not pay up their mortgages simply walked away from their loans without any penalty due to mortgagee-friendly loan policy there. We also witnessed ugly financial intracacies going on within the financial institutions. Institutions try to outwit one another to fleece innocent depositors and investors of their money placed in complicating legal investment scams. The huge Maldof scandal also make many realise that there is no easy money to be made by just throwing money at institutions which promise huge profit. Many people lose more money this year than the last ten years combine.
Blog Services
This blog site was started in January this year with the aim of helping those in transition to cope with the emotional turmoil of unemployment. In a limited sense, we have succeeded in helping people in transition sail through their choppy journey in shark-infested water by providing online/face to face counselling and networking sessions. I have seen some who coped well with their unemployed state but of course some took it rather badly and did not fared as well. Often, the latter group displayed bitterness from been laid off and reacted adversely during their period of joblessness. Engineers also made up a large group of the jobless that I have met and they faced a tough road ahead as their jobs were taken away from them with a dim chance of making any return due to the changing industrial landscape.
Singapore has indeed gone through a tough year as the recession reined it’s ugly head among our local workers. I have personally met up with many people who are jobless this year and am glad to report that the majroity have found jobs after six months of unemployment. However, a minority still remained unemployed due either to a serious skills mismatch or personal choice to be on their own for a while.
For many, unemployment remains a period of personal and financial turmoil as finances will be their chief worry. In Singapore, as we do not have any unemployment benefit, the unemployed have to continue paying their bills without any income coming in. When the bank balance remains low, this is when people turn to desperate measures such as borrowing to make ends meet. Some will even turn to loansharks or gambling in the hope that their financial fortune will turn around. I have also heard of some families that have broke up when they fail to cope with the emotional stress of the main breadwinner going jobless for a prolonged period. This is the sad truth of the adverse social consequence of unemployment.
The main lesson to learn here is to stay lean and save up when times are good so that when the sudden downturn arrives, we have a healthy bank balance to help us tide through those tough times. Some people whom I have met were fortunate to have left their companies with a healthy retrenchment benefit. They almost welcome their retrenchment with glee as they immediately saw their bank account jump by a few figures. Moreover, they have worked at their jobs for many years and wanted a break from the corporate monotony. To this group, it is almost a dream comes true. You get a break from work plus a big fat bank account!
Workers now seeking jobs or already working may be wise to learn more about the retrenchment package of their respective companies. I heard that most big multi natioanl companies will provide retrenchment benefits to their workers if they need to retrench workers in a downturn. It is also unfortunate that the current labour law does not make retrenchment benefit mandatory. Small local companies are mainly the ones guilty of non-compliance here.
Upgrading Courses
Our government uses the upgrading slogan to try and resolve the huge number of jobless people looking for work this year. As many as 70,000 workers were retrenched in the first six months of this year with many staying unemployed after twelve months. Many retrenched workers belonged to the professional, managers, engineers and technicans (PMET) category – marking the first time that professional workers were most affected in any modern-day recession. The most affected PMETs included bankers and engineers as banks and semi-conductor companies retrenched workers by the thousands. An ex-banker in a foreign bank told me that a large department that she worked in was gone within a week when consumers shy away from investing in unit trusts and forex.
Many unemployed workers (42,000) have also signed up for well over one hundred subsidised courses on offer. Such courses were mainly organised by WDA SPUR and most would have graduated from their courses by now. Many companies sent their redundant workers for courses as the government would pick up the tab for them by way of training allowances. If not, most of these workers will be retrenched from their jobs as there is simply no work to keep them on the pay roll. The SPUR courses have largely help keep many redundant workers on the payroll and for that Singaporeans need to be thankful.
Though attending courses is good, especially when there is no new employment in sight, many unemployed have lamented that they could not find jobs immediately after finishing the course. Except for industry-related courses such as with the nursing and healthcare industry, many passed out from their courses without the positive experience of immediately landing a job. Some have even complained that they completely wasted their time attending full time courses for 3-6 months as they also could not attend interviews and take up any potential job offer during the training period. My advice to them is that they have chosen the course themselves and they have no one to blame.
Some may even have followed the crowd and enrolled into courses that they have no interest in. It is a good lesson learnt in following after one’s interest and conviction and not to follow the crowd when there is a downturn. For example, the hugely popular ATEC trainer course was attended by well over 5,000 people and there was a 3-month waiting period at it’s height. Sad to say, would-be trainers have a hard time finding work as our job market is not huge enough to absorb so many trainers all finding work at the same time. Such work is also adhoc and pays by the hour rendering income rather unstable.
Moving forward, our labour law needs to be tightened so that local workers are better protected. For one, I always have advocated that a minimum wage policy be in place. This not only ensures that our low wage workers will earn enough to put food on the table but also deter employers from exploiting foreigners to perform low end menial work. More can also be done to improve productivity among our low end workers by way of work mechanisation. Cleaning industries for example can make use of modern machinery to get the job tdone han the traditional labour-intensive broom and dustpan. With modernisation and higher productivity, cleaning jobs can hopefully fetch a higher income than before replacing the labour-intensive nature of such industry. This will in turn attract younger local workers to such industry who traditionally employ cheap older local workers or the current foreigner ones.
Employment Challenges Ahead
With the huge inflow of foreigners in our midst, the employment dynamics has changed completely and competition for jobs will be tougher and fiercer. Nowadays, employers have the choice of choosing a professionally qualififed local worker or a foreigner who is equally well endowned with a string od degrees. A foreign professional may not come cheap, contrary to modern belief, but they bring with them a whole lot of international experience as they have worked in a few countries before settling in Singapore. Our locally-based workers may not be able to compete well with this group of foreign workers with their vast overseas working experience. Some employers preferred these foreign professionals as their international contacts can then be tapped for marketing purpose.
The incoming integrated resorts (IR) promise to provide us more jobs but at last, these jobs being more service-orientated, appeal more to foreigners (Filipinos). This group is attracted to such jobs as they are by nature more patient and friendly. I tend to agree with this preference by employers as they also want to find the right mix for such important service jobs. Singaporeans have a long way to go before they can dispense service the way Filipinos can.
Thus, the kind of jobs that are created by the IRs may not truly benefit Singaporeans in the long run. Significantly, such service jobs may not attract an income that Singaporeans will want to take a bite at. I heard that IRs pay around $1200 – $1500 for service jobs with a 3-shift routine throws in. Singaporeans, used to the 9-to-5 work routine, may find such jobs difficult to adjust to. The low starting salary also does not help here.
As the General Election may most likely be held sometimes next year, 2010 promises to be a watershed year for many who yearn for some changes in the political landscape. Some are already predicting a lower percentage gain for the ruling party in view of the fact that many people feel that the government may not have it’s heart fully on the ground now. Many Singaporeans who have given up some political rights to the ruling party in exchange for economic propserity may now decide to regain back the loss as they battle against prolonged unemployment and much lower wages when they are rehired.
In conclusion, as we end 2009 hopefully with a bang and a job, let us usher in the new year with glee and cheer. 2009 is best left behind us. Welcome 2010!
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