By Aaron Low

RETRENCHMENT in the beleaguered electronics industry is expected to soar, with layoffs in the first three months of this year set to equal those for the whole of last year.

The labour movement foresees about 2,000 workers losing their jobs by March. This is comparable to 2,374 jobs lost last year.

The bleak figures were given by National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) deputy secretary-general Halimah Yacob yesterday. She was speaking to reporters after visiting 44 retrenched STMicroelectronics workers attending a training course at NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i).

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