Reader’s Mail: Unemployed with 2 degrees and 4 certs
Hi Gilbert!
I came across your site whilst surfing the web for a support site for the unemployed.
Briefly about myself … I am 36, Malaysian Chinese, female and resigned in April 2009 from my MYR150k / annum job. Reason being that I needed a break and the work culture of the organisation was doing me no good. I am still looking for a job (albeit a good job, altho in times like this it is hard to even say that). During the course of my unemployment I have done 4 papers and gotten 4 certs, worked at MalaysiaKini briefly for about 3 months (but felt I didn’ have the knack for journalism) and am currently working at a marketing job (that’s paying 1/2 of what I used to get). At the same time, I am sending out my CV to scores of companies (both within KL and Singapore) for jobs within my area of specialism.
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Reader’s Mail: Exercise Helps Me During Unemployment
Hi Gilbert,
I’m one of the readers of your blog and also got myself unemployed involuntarily.
During this period of unemployment, each and every single day of staying at home becomes an increasingly difficult task to manage.
I was “enjoying” the first month of unemployment and by time the second month comes, every single day becomes an increasingly difficult task when you wake up in the morning, switch on the computer, search the jobs web directories for new postings (many were actually repeated postings) and have nothing else to do.
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2010: The Best of Times Or The Worst? (Robert Kiyosaki)
“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”
– Charles Dickens
Is the recession over? Are happy days really here again? Paraphrasing Dickens, my answer is, “For people who are prepared, 2010 will be the best of times. For many, 2010 will be the worst of times.”
The following are a few of my predictions and reasons behind them…
Prediction #1: The real estate market will crash again.
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My Published Letter: Help borrowers find hope (Today 14 Jan)
I refer to the well-written report “Authorities armed to the teeth” (Jan 13).
The Government is to be applauded for providing the relevant authorities with more power to tackle the growing loan-sharking problem before the opening of the integrated resorts. Gambling and loan-sharking go hand in hand.
There was a serious recession last year, so illegal money lending grew as the unemployed searched for funds. There is only so much that a person can borrow from friends and relatives. For some, loan sharks might even be their first choice of lender as it saves them the embarrassment of approaching people they know.
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Opinion: Poor Employment Practices – Lack of Compensation Package
Our Poor Employment Practics – Lack of Compensation Package
Written by: Gilbert Goh
Many people who were retrenched during the recent recession lamented how badly they were treated after been laid off by their companies. Though retrenchment is generally expected by many people when there is a down turn, more can be done by the authorities to ensure that compensation is paid out when someone is being laid off.
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Job losses minimised in 2009, thanks to govt action (Asiaone 4 Jan)
Job losses minimised in 2009, thanks to govt action
But with Jobs Credit scheme expiring in June, will bosses let go of redundant staff? -BT
Mon, Jan 04, 2010
The Business Times
THE list of casualties wasn’t as long as you might have expected from the worst global downturn since the 1929 Great Depression. By the time 2009 ended, about 20,000 workers had been laid off here, according to the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).
And that’s less than the numbers in the previous two crashes – 29,080 during the 1998 Asian financial crisis and 25,840 during the 2001 Sars outbreak.
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A Year Best Left Forgotten
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.
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Under-employment Among Older PMETs Becoming An Uptrend in Singapore (CNA 30 Dec)
And efforts must be put in place to help them get jobs suited to their skills and qualifications.
PMETs were the hardest hit during the economic downturn.
Many, like those in the financial sector, were left jobless and the labour movement said they had to settle for whatever job they could get to make ends meet.
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Don’t forget the invisible jobless (ST 28 Dec)
Dec 28, 2009
Don’t forget the invisible jobless
It makes sense to shed more light on the economically inactive
THE Manpower Ministry said earlier this month that the resident unemployment rate in Singapore hit 5 per cent in the third quarter, lower than the 6.2 per cent during the 2003 Sars crisis.
The actual proportion of people unemployed in any economy in any given period has always been notoriously difficult to pin down. This is in part because the unemployment rate is calculated based only on what is called the number of ‘economically active’.
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Christmas Message 2009
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The Lonesome City Blues – Unemployment (New York Times)
The ranks of the unemployed now total 12.5 million people. One of them is Al Martinez, who was recently laid off in January from his job as a columnist for The Los Angeles Times. In a recent post on his personal blog, Mr. Martinez describes the “intense feelings of rejection” that accompany sudden unemployment:-
A friend who lost his job in a newspaper washout some time ago said it made him feel alone and isolated in the city.
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The Singapore Solution (National Geographic Magazine)
If you want to get a Singaporean to look up from a beloved dish of fish-head curry—or make a harried cabdriver slam on his brakes—say you are going to interview the country’s “minister mentor,” Lee Kuan Yew, and would like an opinion about what to ask him. “The MM?Wah lau! You’re going to see the MM? Real?” You might as well have told a resident of the Emerald City that you’re late for an appointment with the Wizard of Oz. After all, LKY, as he is known in acronym-mad Singapore, is more than the “father of the country.” He is its inventor, as surely as if he had scientifically formulated the place with precise portions of Plato’s Republic, Anglophile elitism, unwavering economic pragmatism, and old-fashioned strong-arm repression.
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Out of work, and loving it (ST 21 Dec)
Dec 21, 2009
Out of work, and loving it
Some laid-off Wall St workers find it liberating to get out of the rat race
JUST PART OF THE BUSINESS
‘To get laid off may just be integrated into a narrative of profit and loss that they have dealt with day in and day out on Wall Street.’
Dr Caitlin Zaloom, a professor at New York University
NEW YORK: -Twelve months without a job. Fourteen months.
Eighteen.
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Where to put your money next year (Sunday Times 20 Dec)
Where to put your money next year
The world economy has got off the deathbed but its recovery in the year ahead will be sluggish. Gabriel Chen gets tips from financial experts for 2010 and finds out where the traps might be.
Dr Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management:
‘We believe commodities will continue to do well, and that includes gold. Commodity stocks look good because we expect the global demand for commodities to continue its long-term growth. To keep pace with domestic consumption, commodity prices will remain positive and though they will fluctuate from time to time, the overall trend globally is upwards.’
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A Year of Trials and Triumphs (ST 19 Dec)
Dec 19, 2009
A year of trials and triumphs
If you imagine the Singapore scene as a boxing ring, what would you say were the biggest matches to enthrall, excite and exasperate Singaporeans this year? Today, we review 2009 – in five bouts. Enjoy.
SINGAPORE VS RECESSION
NO DOUBT about it, this was the bout that hogged the headlines – Singapore pitted against Recession, the fearsome superheavyweight that threatened to deliver the sucker punch.
