currently in the same plight as well...33 years old with double degrees ( recognised Australian universitities, same as several ministers) in business and health science (GPA about 3.3 out of 4), obtained 2 scholarships and rated mostly "a" for performances during my past 9 years in 2 different industries (4 years in banking 5 years in healthcare)...applied for 6 entry positions in the last week of December 2010 and until now, 0 interviews...and I am only asking $3K plus and change (willing to accept 15% pay cut)...had to quit current job as the working conditions were very similar to the dealers in MDS and RWS...
I think its easier for specialists (e.g. FX trader, engineers) to switch and find jobs rather than for jack of all trades (like me)...nowadays civil service like mindef and moe offer mostly contract jobs (unless honours degree)...banks like cs and ubs that pay high salary can retrench you anytime (and still retrenching, though in very small numbers), especially those financial consultants (team manager basic $4K and $2.6K for credit card sales at citibank, but they dont tell you your monthly quota, just axe as and when)..
Its really becoming very stressful to live in SG nowadays...it dosent make sense to have pinoys manning the bank's helpdesk when nobody can understand their English, why not pay a bit more to the locals, or if they are so afraid of locals job hopping, make it a yearly contract thing...how to have babies, much less plan for retirement...its a bloody mess