FROM being one of the hottest markets for job seekers on earth, Singapore has turned into the least likely place you can find employment, according to the latest poll by United States-based Manpower.
And the sharp turnaround, which came in the wake of the current global downturn, has happened almost overnight.
There are overwhelmingly more employers in Singapore looking to cut their payrolls than increase their headcounts in the next three months - 46 per cent against 8 per cent respectively in a poll of 629 bosses.
This gives a net employment (8 per cent minus 46 per cent) of -38 per cent, the first negative hiring outlook for Singapore since Manpower started the poll here in 2004.
Quarter-on-quarter, the outlook for the job market in the upcoming quarter has weakened by 54 percentage points. From a year ago, it has plunged 81 points.
'As the realisation of the credit crisis begins to hit companies, employers' hiring confidence is likewise affected,' said Philippe Capsie, Manpower's country manager in Singapore.
Of the 33 markets Manpower's polled worldwide, covering a total of 71,000 employers, bosses in eight of the markets reported negative hiring expectations for the first three months of 2009.
Among the eight, Singapore has by far the gloomiest job outlook for the next three months. After Singapore, Ireland has the largest negative employment outlook of -14 per cent.
The other six with negative hiring expectations are Taiwan (-6 per cent), Czech Republic (-4 per cent), France (-3 per cent), Italy (-11 per cent), Spain (-13 per cent) and the United Kingdom (-5 per cent).
'The decline is most pronounced in Singapore where hiring intentions have undergone a steep decline,' Manpower says in its report.
In contrast, only three months ago, Manpower's poll showed Singapore to be the most promising market for jobs, after India. It had the second-highest net employment outlook of 25 per cent (seasonally adjusted). India's was 43 per cent.
Still, in the wake of the global credit crunch, the vast majority of employers in the latest poll expect to ease the pace of hiring compared with three months ago - with three exceptions: Canada, the United States and Switzerland.
The improvement in job prospects in the US is surprising, after the latest report on Friday last week that US job losses in November hit a 34-year high following 10 straight months of decline.
While the outlook for job market has weakened, employers in six of the eight markets polled in the Asia-Pacific region expect to add some employees in the upcoming quarter. Relatively, Australia, China and India are anticipating the most favourable hiring activity in the next three months.
The grim job prospects in Singapore for the first quarter of 2009 cut across all seven sectors covered in the poll.
'In all seven industry sectors, employers report the weakest sector outlooks since the survey began in the third quarter of 2004,' Manpower said.
Seasonally adjusted, the wholesale trade and retail trade sector (-40 per cent) is likely to see the weakest recruitment, followed by the services sector (-38 per cent) and the finance, insurance and real estate sector (-35 per cent).
'Although mass retrenchments have already taken place - mainly in the banking and finance and technologies sectors - this is unlikely to become a long-term trend in Singapore,' said Mr Capsie.
'We expect more companies to slow down in their hiring, freeze their headcount or eventually adopt wage cuts until the economy stabilises.'
This article was first published in The Business Times on December 09, 2008.
