By Rachel Chan

SINGAPOREANS are digging their heels in, lowering their wage expectations and aspirations as they brace themselves for possible unemployment.

Mr Michael Guo, 30, ran a business distributing portable electronic media players, but decided to 'put his aspirations aside' for the time being.

'I hope to find an office job to support my family now,' said the father of a two-year-old daughter.

He added: 'I have a diploma in electrical engineering, but it doesn't matter which sector I work in for now. I'd be happy just to land a job.'

Like him, a retrenched human- resource director told my paper that she would gladly take a pay cut to land a job.

The single mother, who wished to be known only as Jolene, said: 'I've sent out 60 to 80 resumes to all sorts of companies, including those in the civil service, since I was retrenched last November. I'm quite ready to take a pay cut.'

To increase her chances of re-employment, she has applied for sponsorship from the Workforce Development Agency to take up a master's programme in hospitality.

Yesterday, Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang told Parliament that there are still plenty of jobs available.

Construction, information and communications, health care, education and the civil service are sectors which are still hiring, he said.

The minister also urged workers to retrain and upgrade their skills to stay employable.

Mr Adrian Tan, 30, managing director of RecruitPlus Consulting, agreed. 'They (those above 40) should upgrade their skills as Singapore is, and will remain, a society that measures workers by their paper qualifications,' said the boss of the five-year-old agency, which specialises in placing jobs for the logistics and health-care industries.

'With their extensive experience, they have leverage over fresh graduates as they would require less training to acclimatise to new working conditions.'

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