FEWER new workers will be hired in the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period last year.
JobStreet.com said this outlook was for all sectors of the economy.

"From a random selection of about 1,700 JobStreet.com clients from various industries that were polled last month, only 14 per cent of them said they would employ more new people in the first quarter of 2009 compared with 55 per cent in the same period in 2008.

"About 30 per cent said the level of employing new staff would remain more or less the same. For employers who said they would be hiring fewer new people, the percentage climbed to 56 per cent, which represents a 43 per cent jump from the 13 per cent in the same period on 2007.

"In contrast, when we ran the poll last July, we had 36 per cent of companies expecting to hire more staff in the second half of the year while 34 per cent expected no change to their hiring activities." -- The New Straits Times / Asia News Network