THE recession guessing game is here: Will our jobs be left standing, as the economy shrinks?

But fear not, Singaporeans have in our hands the power to turn unemployment to zero instantly.

How? Hold your horses while I paint the big picture.

Earlier this week, the Government released a report forecasting that unemployment is expected to rise over the next few quarters.

Some economists are even saying that the unemployment rate might almost double to 4 per cent (from the current 2.2 per cent) by the end of 2009 - a level not seen since the Sars period in 2003.

Employment figures released on Friday also showed the manufacturing, services and construction sectors added 20 per cent fewer jobs in the last quarter.

A quick poll among 10 of my friends on whether they feared for their jobs was predictable - they all said yes. Well, duh.

Half of them had mortgages and tuition fees to pay, and the rest were saddled with car loans.

So what will they do if they become the targets of 'right-sizing' (a fancy way of saying 'You're fired', Donald Trump style)?

Looking for another job was a given. But what if they couldn't find a job with equivalent pay?

Go for a lower paying job, they said.

But how low would they go?

Now, that's where the fun starts.

I asked one, who works as a manager in a local bank, if push came to shove, would he take up a job as a waiter or construction worker?

'No way. So malu (embarrassing in Malay),' he said, adding he would have to use up every last cent of his savings before he would even consider it.

The answer was the same for a female friend, when I suggested a job as a receptionist or spa assistant.

'If I have to serve one of my friends or family members, where to hide my face?' she shrieked.

Here's the rub.

There are more than enough jobs available in Singapore but Singaporeans are too choosy, it seems.

According to official figures, there are some 757,000 work permit holders and 143,000 on employment passes currently working here.

So, technically, if we really really really needed the jobs, we could presumably take over those currently handled by foreign workers.

The guys can take on work at our many construction sites. After all, we've done similar work during our stints in National Service - carrying heavy loads to and from trucks, digging trenches, shovelling sand.

The gals can parlay their charm into service sector positions. Beauty spa, retail store and healthcare jobs are all there for the taking.

But it seems that even in extreme times, 'face' trumps 'guts'.

Many people would rather sit around twiddling their thumbs, and live off their dwindling savings rather than take a job they deem to be 'beneath' them.

In a recent letter to a newspaper, a beauty spa owner lamented that no matter how many recruitment ads she placed, most of the replies she got were from recruitment agencies offering workers from China or the Philippines. Only 1 per cent of applications were from Singaporeans, she said.

There will soon be another 10,000 jobs up for grabs when the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort opens for business next year.

But despite the recession, the resort believes that it will still have trouble filling out all the positions, and may need to look for some foreign workers.

So with so many jobs presumably up for grabs, how can there be any unemployment at all?

Well, you might ask if I would take up a job that pays only a fraction of my current salary when the crunch time comes.

Of course. Because the last time I checked, 'face' wasn't listed as one of the payment methods on my credit card bill.

This article was first published in The New Paper on November 2, 2008.