SINGAPORE, Jan 30, 2009 (AFP) – Companies in Singapore laid off 7,000 workers in the last three months of 2008, as the economy slipped deeper into recession, the government said Friday.

More than half of the layoffs were in the key manufacturing sector, which has been hit by a sharp decline in demand for the city-state's exports, the Ministry of Manpower said in a statement citing preliminary estimates.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 2.6 percent in December, up from 2.2 percent in September and 1.7 percent in December 2007, it said.

The 7,000 workers laid off in the December quarter compared with 2,346 employees who lost their jobs in the preceding three months and 1,966 for the same period in 2007, the ministry said.

For the whole of 2008, there were 13,400 workers laid off, up from 7,675 the year before.

Employment also slowed significantly to 26,900 in the fourth quarter of last year, from 55,700 people who were hired in the preceding quarter and 62,500 in the same period in 2007.

Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam warned last week the country is facing its worst recession since independence 44 years ago and announced a record stimulus package of more than 13 billion US dollars.

Singapore in October became the first Asian economy to enter recession, falling victim to a global slowdown sparked by a crisis in the US housing market.

Sigh…. The economy is really so big.

I wish for the $10 million of Toto. I just need $1 million.

I am having a TERRIBLE & HORRIBLE backache since this late morning.
ARGH!!!!!!
What is wrong????????
Fark!
If by tomorrow it still hurts, I think I need a painkiller!

Back pain is one of the most common ailments of mankind. Ever since human beings stood upright they have been having trouble with their backs. In fact, experts estimate that roughly 80 percent of people will experience back pain at some point in their lives, and slightly more men suffer from it than women.

– Backache with associated pain in legs weakness and tingling in the leg or back.
If painkillers and other therapies don't make any noticeable difference, and you're getting worse and the backache is hampering day-to-day activities, then you have to see a professional.

My house is shabby, but it is comfortable. There is no end to wanting – after the Ferrari and theBirkin bag, what next? by Lee Wei Ling

In 2007, in an end-of-year message to the staff of the National Neuroscience Institute, I wrote: 'Whilst boom time in the public sector is never as booming as in the private sector, let us not forget that boom time is eventually followed by slump time. Slump time in the public sector is always less painful compared to the private sector.Slump time has arrived with a bang. While I worry about the poorer Singaporeans who will be hit hard, perhaps this recession has come at an opportune time for many of us. It will give us an incentive to reconsider our priorities in life. Decades of the good life have made us soft. The wealthy especially, but also the middle class in Singapore, have had it so good for so long, what they once considered luxuries, they now think of as necessities. A mobile phone, for instance, is now a statement about who you are, not just a piece of equipment for communication.> Hence many people buy the latest model though their existing mobile phones are still in perfect working order.A Mercedes-Benz is no longer adequate as a status symbol. For millionaires who wish to show the world they have taste, a Ferrari or a Porsche is deemed more appropriate. The same attitude influences the choice of attire and> accessories. I still find it hard to believe that there are people carrying handbags that cost more than thrice the monthly income of a bus driver, and many more times that of the foreign worker labouring in the hot sun, risking his life to construct luxury condominiums he will never have a chance to live in. The media encourages and amplifies this ostentatious consumption. Perhaps it is good to encourage people to spend more because this will prevent the recession from gettingworse. I am not an economist, but wasn't that the root cause of the current crisis – Americans spending more than they could afford to? I am not a particularly spiritual person. I don't believe in the supernatural and I don't think I have a> soul that will survive my death. But as I view the crass materialism around me, I am reminded of what my mother once told me: 'Suffering and deprivation is good for the soul.'

My family is not poor, but we have been brought up to be frugal. My parents and I live in the same house that my> paternal grandparents and their children moved into after World War II in 1945. It is a big house by today's standards, but it is simple – in fact, almost to the point of being shabby.

Those who see it for the first time are astonished that Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's home is so humble. But it is a comfortable house, a home we have got used to. Though it does look shabby compared to the new mansions on our street, we are not bothered by the comparison.

Most of the world and much of Singapore will lament the economic downturn. We have been told to tighten our belts.> There will undoubtedly be suffering, which we must try our best to ameliorate.

But I personally think the hard times will hold a timely lesson for many Singaporeans, especially those born after 1970 who have never lived through difficult times.

No matter how poor you are in Singapore, the authorities and social groups do try to ensure you have shelter and food. Nobody starves in Singapore. Many of those who are currently living in mansions and enjoying a luxurious lifestyle will probably still be able to do so, even if they might have to downgrade from wines costing $20,000 a bottle to $10,000 a bottle. They would hardly notice the difference.

Being wealthy is not a sin. It cannot be in a capitalist> market economy. Enjoying the fruits of one's own labour is one's prerogative and I have no right to chastise those who choose to live luxuriously. But if one is blinded by materialism, there would be no end to wanting and hankering. After the Ferrari, what next? An Aston Martin? After the Hermes Birkin handbag, what can one upgrade to?

Neither an Aston Martin nor an Hermes Birkin can make us truly happy or contented. They are like dust, a fog obscuring the true meaning of life, and can be blown away in the twinkling of an eye.

When the end approaches and we look back on our lives, will we regret the latest mobile phone or luxury car that we did not acquire? Or would we prefer to die at peace with ourselves, knowing that we have lived lives filled with love, friendship and goodwill, that we have helped some of our fellow voyagers along the way and that we have tried our best to leave this world a slightly better place than how we found it?

We know which is the correct choice – and it is within our power to make that choice.

In this new year, burdened as it is with the problems of the year that has just ended, let us again try to choose wisely.

To a considerable degree, our happiness is within our own control, and we should not follow the herd blindly. 

The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute.

Singapore's economy may suffer its worst annual contraction on record this year amid a slump in exports, increasing pressure on the government to take steps to help businesses and consumers.
    Gross domestic product may shrink as much as 5 percent this year, the trade ministry said today, cutting its forecast for the second time in less than three weeks. It predicted a contraction of as much as 2 percent on Jan. 2. The economy grew
1.2 percent last year, less than earlier estimated.
    Singapore will unveil this year's budget plan tomorrow, as it attempts to speed up aid to companies hurt by the global recession and minimize job cuts. More than 10,000 people were retrenched last year and a worsening economy may result in job losses tripling in 2009, reaching numbers not seen since the Asian financial crisis a decade ago, the government said.
    "All the government can do is to ensure that citizens and businesses cope with the recession because it's not possible to counteract the drop in external demand," said Chow Penn Nee, an economist at United Overseas Bank Ltd. in Singapore. "The situation may start to improve only in the fourth quarter" of 2009.
    The Southeast Asian economy has contracted for three straight quarters, sliding into recession along with Japan, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
    Gross domestic product declined an annualized 16.9 percent last quarter from the previous three months, after shrinking a revised 5.1 percent between July and September, the trade ministry said. The contraction in the fourth quarter was worse than a Jan. 2 estimate of 12.5 percent.
    Singapore is facing unprecedented conditions in this recession and little can be done to mitigate the slowdown, Trade Minister Lim Hng Kiang said this week.
    "The economic downturn has spread to all the key sectors of the economy," Lim said Jan. 19. "Our manufacturing sector is likely to continue facing a slowdown this year."