Job losses to cut Singapore population by 4 pct: bank
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SINGAPORE, Jan 20, 2009 (AFP) - Tiny Singapore's population is expected to decline by 200,000 as companies lay off a massive number of foreign workers during a worsening recession, Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse said. the job cuts, which would include highly-paid expatriates and permanent residents, will hurt domestic consumption and help push the economy into its sharpest decline since independence in 1965, said the report received by AFP on Tuesday. A loss of 200,000 jobs would amount to more than four percent of the population. Credit Suisse said the economic slowdown in the trade-sensitive city-state had so far been driven by a sharp decline in exports, while domestic demand held up. But for this year, "consumption growth should also slow, in part because of our expectation that Singapore's population will potentially drop by 200,000 by 2010" due to job losses, it said. "Historically, Singapore's foreign population has tended to expand during high growth periods and contract during recessionary periods," the report said. "Given the strong foreigner population growth in recent years, this trend is unlikely to change in this downturn." Of the 800,000 jobs created from 2004 to the third quarter of last year, Credit Suisse estimated that more than 500,000 were filled by foreigners and permanent residents. About 200,000 of those jobs were in manufacturing and almost another 200,000 were in the financial and business services. Most of these jobs were filled by expatriate workers who earn more than the average Singaporean, it said. "As a result, job losses are likely to hit the Singaporean economy hard because they affect more highly paid workers and could result in a semi-permanent drop in the population," the report said. As of mid-2008, Singapore had a total estimated population of 4.84 million people, including 3.64 million citizens and permanent residents, Statistics Department data showed. The rest, more than one million, are foreign workers and their families. With the impact of falling domestic demand exacerbating declining exports, the economy was likely to contract by 2.8 percent this year, Credit Suisse said. This would leave the economy in its worse shape ever, after 2001 when it shrank by 2.4 percent. The economy grew 1.5 percent last year compared with 7.7 percent in 2007. Despite the expected layoffs, Singapore's Acting Minister for Manpower Gan Kim Yong said the city-state would still need overseas labour. Gan said that foreign workers allowed Singapore companies to remain globally competitive and contributed to keeping jobs within the country. "If companies become uncompetitive in Singapore, they may decide to relocate to other countries and we will lose more jobs. This will be a lose-lose outcome," he said in parliament Monday. THIS IS GOOD NEWS IN THE MIDST OF A GLOOM!!!! 200K is not enough we have to cut more maybe a million will make the mrt less congested
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if this report is to be believed, it's amazing how many of these jobs are filled by foreigners.
i hope in 2 years, if i ever remotely want to come to sgp to work; i can come back as a foreigner.....
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Originally posted by redDUST:
if this report is to be believed, it's amazing how many of these jobs are filled by foreigners.
i hope in 2 years, if i ever remotely want to come to sgp to work; i can come back as a foreigner.....
Maybe Singaporeans will be the new "foreigners" in Singapore in 10 years time.
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Originally posted by redDUST:
if this report is to be believed, it's amazing how many of these jobs are filled by foreigners.
i hope in 2 years, if i ever remotely want to come to sgp to work; i can come back as a foreigner.....
..and get retrenched as a foreigner... -
Originally posted by angel7030:
..and get retrenched as a foreigner...
in 2 yrs, singapore wld have recovered a little bit, but since pinkerton syndrome exists in employment in singapore too, i will probably get the nod over locals and draw better package too.when i was here, most of my foreigners colleagues all got housing allowances, optional cpf contribution, etc.
singapore gahmen may even offer me PR!?!?!?
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Originally posted by redDUST:
in 2 yrs, singapore wld have recovered a little bit, but since pinkerton syndrome exists in employment in singapore too, i will probably get the nod over locals and draw better package too.when i was here, most of my foreigners colleagues all got housing allowances, optional cpf contribution, etc.
singapore gahmen may even offer me PR!?!?!?
exactly, since singapore base on meritocracy, one hv to something in hands to survive here, too bad that most singaporeans do not acquire that merits, so, they use tailor made foreigner at the expense of singaporeans.Me selling tissue papers to expatriate at foodcentres, 3 for $1, most of them buy, but singaporeans hardly buy it, so, foreigners are better both in merits and spending power.