40% Sg Companies Planning to Axe Sporns!

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published April 3, 2009

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Job market here still holding up
Hudson survey finds 61% of executives planning to keep staff strength steady

By LEE U-WEN
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DESPITE rising retrenchments and painful wage cuts, Singapore's job market appears to be holding up.

Some 61 per cent of 752 executives across different sectors polled by recruitment firm Hudson in February said that they plan to keep headcount steady at their companies.
Encouragingly, 20 per cent said that they intend to hire staff in the April-June 2009 quarter, only slightly less than 23 per cent in the previous quarter.
Gina McLellan, Hudson's country manager for Singapore, said that although hiring expectations have fallen again this quarter, 'the rate of decline is levelling off'.
The healthcare and life sciences sector has the highest number of respondents who plan to recruit in Q2 - 38 per cent, the same rate as the first quarter. Hiring expectations among media, public relations and advertising firms are also largely unchanged from the last quarter.
The banking and financial services sector reported the largest fall, with 19 per cent of respondents forecasting headcount growth, down from 25 per cent the previous quarter.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Not so good news is the fact that more than 60 per cent of respondents in Singapore say that their organisation cut HR-related costs in the past six months - the highest figure among all the markets Hudson surveyed in Asia.
Reducing headcount and slashing bonuses are the most widely used cost-cutting measures. 40 per cent of respondents say that their company has trimmed staff in the past six months, while 25 per cent say that their firm has cut costs by way of smaller bonuses.
Not surprisingly, headcount reduction has been widespread in banking and financial services, with 50 per cent of respondents saying that their organisation has done this.
Healthcare and life sciences companies are 'most reluctant' to reduce headcount, with just 19 per cent doing so.
The Hudson survey also found that recruitment consultancies and employee referrals are the two most popular ways to hire new blood.
As for staff morale in today's tough economic climate, the top two ways to lift it are open communication between managers and staff, and reinforcement messages from the CEO and senior management. Across all sectors, both were mentioned by 28 per cent of respondents in Singapore - more than in any other country surveyed by Hudson.

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