After the SARS, many hawkers and SARS related businesses were badly hit but in the manufacturing, there were not much affected by that epidemic. Some smart administrators started a wave of retrenchment calls that even those profitable companies were seen taking advantage of retrenching workers, worst still, some GLCs and the govt were also taking advantage of the retrenchment call. Many talented Singaporeans were seen driving taxi to keep themselves afloat.
That indiscriminate retrenchment call after the SARS were the biggest mistake in the economic history of Singapore!You need not have to look far to see why it was a mistake in retrenching those workers in those profitable companies. Just look at Malaysia, after SARS, they were not panicky or so kiasu to retrench workers, and their economy sailed on smoothly. In Singapore, many retrenched workers have to sell their houses or cars because they have no money to pay for the high instalment, that might have started a chain effects in many other sectors, and the multiplier effect was going negative that brought down the whole economy!
Now you can see those profitable companies that retrenched workers are getting even more profitable and the top guns are paying themselves fatter salary!shareholders may be just getting slightly better divident but on the ground, majority of Singaporeans may still die of self attrition!
The economy may have recovered, but the wavering effects for the kiasu kiasi still linger on, many were seen saving hard and clinch on to their purse for worry of being the next to be axed, the economic activities on the ground is near dead or standstill!