The New World
Graduates dislike it
Singapore's new graduates have to jostle hard for a living like their peers in other countries. By Seah Chiang Nee
Aug 14, 2001

In New York, they're talking about a generation that has lost the touch of passing a simple job interview, thanks to a sustained boom.

International Herald Tribune carried a story recently on how one that lasted only five minutes.

"All I did was ask her what she could offer the magazine," said the editor afterwards. "Hmmm, that's a toughie", the interviewee replied: "I was more wanting to hear what you could do for me."

This may not quite describe the scene in Singapore - not yet, anyway - but there are similarities. Jobs used to be galore and the pain of a sharp downturn is also setting in.

Like in the USA, it is knocking some realities into a young generation used to the good times.

Some, like the lady in New York, may not have learned yet.

Recently a couple of lady graduates, whose father was an old friend, rang me up to say they were unhappy with their jobs and asked if I could help them get better ones.

Although secure, their jobs were dull (one in civil service), low-paid. Nothing wrong - except the timing.

But the majority of Singaporeans are more realistic. Times are horrible, they know, and the big companies are still retrenching and freezing recruitment.

Young people are becoming edgy> Tune in to the chat-sites such as these:-

"I can't believe economic downturn came so fast. Life is bad enough these days and there is a shortage of jobs available," declared one posting. "I've just joined the ranks of jobless even though I juz came out from local U (varsity) with a pretty good degree. How are U people coping?"

Came a reply: "Me, I am still looking for a job. Two months and still nothing. I thought I was lucky when I got a diploma in 1998."

Another: "Hey, we're from the same batch! That's what I thought when I got that dip (diploma), but who knows we have one recession after another? I worked for 1/2 year already, though not the kind of job I like so don't need to eat grass. don't be too picky, lah."

Yet another: "Damn, resigned in March for my MBA "n" have been looking for a job since June but to no avail, wbat is happening to the Singapore economy? Too many people vying for one job or the economy is in a real bad shape."

And so on.

For the class of 2001, the cozy life of fast, full employment for graduates they had grown up to expect has ceased to exist.

The 9,500 new graduates from the two universities are walking into Singapore's worst job market in decades.

In normal times, 60 per cent of the graduates would have got jobs within three months - and most of the rest several months later. In fact the brighter ones were recruited before graduation.

In a deepening "technical" recession, 61 per cent of companies polled said they had frozen recruitment in the second quarter. Worst hit - about 1,000 electrical and electronic engineers.

Bank mergers are likely to shed several thousand quality jobs. And the flourishing media industry is cutting down on costs.

The gloom persists despite the Prime Minister, Mr. Goh Chok Tong's National Day call on people not to be pessimistic. His ministers say the economy will pull out of trouble in the middle of 2002.

These soothing messages are tempered with advice for people to take whatever jobs that come along, not only in Singapore but abroad, especially China.

All this has unleashed a new culture of community job fairs and grassroots employment matching.

Others have turned bus stops and rail stations into recruitment centres. This is how it works: Agencies advertise for workers in the newspapers. Those interested are asked to meet at a certain station.

Agents will turn up to distribute application forms. A van or a bus will show up to ferry applicants to the companies for interviews. Usually for technicians and production workers or cleaners, drivers, etc.

It's usually for large numbers of more than 100-150 workers at a go. For the higher end, there's America's latest dot com culture, the pink slip party.

Made famous in New York, San Francisco and, of course, Silicon Valley, it spread throughout cities like Chicago, Seattle, Denver - before invading Singapore.

Its history began as a sad tribute by laid off workers to the many high-tech companies that had shut their doors in a market meltdown - and turned into a matchmaking phenomenon.

The "fun" way of bringing together IT job seekers and talent hunters over coke and noodles is the public indication of job losses, or the fear of it, in the hi-tech world in Singapore.

The organiser of the Pink Slip Party, a local newspaper, had expected 180 people but 1,200 turned up, packing the large bar in yuppie Robertson Walk.

"Young women arrived with freshly-brushed hair and impeccable make-up. Middle-aged men sported gold tie-pins and matching pens," wrote Straits Times journalist Leong Ching. "Hopeful young men came with their laptops."

The bad times are raising pressures for ministers and top bureaucrats in Singapore, by far the world's highest-paid, to take a pay cut like many others.

And opposition leader and member of Parliament, Mr. Chiam See Tong, wants the government to slaughter the proverbial sacred cow by dipping into the country's reserves to help the jobless and poor.

For Singapore - and Southeast Asia - it is not just a cyclical problem.

With the new economy and the emergence of huge countries like China and India, the world has changed forever. For at least another year, Singapore will live under the shadow of a recession.

It is hitting almost every facet - from housing to hawker centres.

Even the popular love nests in Geylang - hotels for sexual trysts - are going through poor times.

Popular and cheap - they offer rooms at low rates for short time or all-night, many have been running up debts in the past six months. A number may have to close.
Seah Chiang Nee