DBS says crisis could cost Singapore 99,000 jobs

Singapore's unemployment rate is likely to hit a 20-year high of 5% in 2010, with 99,000 jobs expected to be lost, according to a report by DBS.

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports to China have fallen by as much as 51.6 per cent as compared to 50 per cent to the US. And that contributed to the sharp 34.8 per cent drop in non-oil domestic exports in January, which is the sharpest ever in history

A summary on the job cuts estimate:
DBS: 99,000
Credit Suisse : 300,000
NUS Economics Dept: 130,000

In between, DBS estiamtes manufacturing jobs are likely to be worst hit with an expected 58,000 job losses next year.

Unemployment is likely to hit 4.8 percent this year and peak at 5 percent by the middle of 2010, it said. That figure would be a “20-year high,” according to the Singapore daily, Straits Times.

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Learn - Blogs, Wikis & Free Software

There are 3 things that we need to know about today’s Internet technologies:

FIRSTLY, a powerful GLOBAL CONVERSATION on blogs and lots of other social media had begun since 1999. Catch up quickly or you might be left behind!

SECONDLY, email volume on related projects could be down by 75% and meeting times whacked in half… if you use wikis effectively, according to a report by Internet research firm Gartner Group.

THIRDLY, NO licence costs, NO restrictive licences, and NO vendor lock-in are possible and feasible. In fact, you can set up a corporate website for as low as US$10 a year, or have easy access and installation of dozens of free scripts for as low as US$10 a month!

Upon completion of the course, you should be able to:
* Set up your own website for as low as US$10 a year or US$10 a month.
* Create a blog on a popular blog host, add posts with text, links, graphics, audio, video and comments; and change the settings and templates of your blogs.
* Make use of social networks such as Facebook as a savvy member.
* Use RSS (rich site summary) effectively as a reader/subscriber.
* Create a wiki on a popular host, manage wikis pages, adding text, tables, links, graphics, audio, video and comments; and change the settings of your wikis.
* Use Google services to search, organize, communicate and collaborate on relevant information.
* Discuss meaningfully the “what”, “how” and “why” of using blogs, wikis, and other free software (such as Google apps and Moodle) to meet the information sharing and training needs of a commercial or educational organization.

Run1 - 19 to 20 March 2009 ► Register for this run
Run2 - 25 to 26 June 2009 ► Register for this run
Time: 9.00am - 5.00pm
Venue: NTU@one-north campus, Executive Centre
Fee: Standard: SGD$590.00 NTU Alumni: SGD$472.00 Group (3 & above): SGD$531.00


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Losing too much time on Business Reporting?

CFOs, Financial Controllers, Accountants, Finance Managers, Businessmen who find generating management reports too time consuming and rigid for analysis purposes. This course will also suit business leaders who want to achieve a higher level of expertise for financial reporting thereby transforming themselves to be vital business partners to the organisation.

ICPAS has announced new incentives on 20 Jan 2009 to help more accountants to be trained in the Bar Program. Check out http://www.icpas.org.sg/bizexcel.asp for more information.

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Master of Science in Wealth Management (MSc in WM)

The Master of Science in Wealth Management (MSc in WM) is a flagship programme of the WMI developed in close collaboration with the Singapore Management University (SMU) and the Swiss Finance Institute. The degree will be awarded by SMU. The programme is tailored to meet the educational needs of post-graduate students wanting to work in the wealth management industry and existing wealth management practitioners who would like to enhance their academic and professional credentials.

The programme emcompasses asset management as well as private banking. Students will learn the technology that underpins the products used in these two businesses. They will also analyze and discuss the process of investment management, security analysis, portfolio diversification, valuation and risk management. Those wanting to specialise in asset management/product development will deepen their technical knowledge of financial products, while others wanting to specialise in the client relationship aspect of private banking will find courses on topics such as financial and tax planning, life cycle wealth management and managing client relationships very relevant.

Scholarship

A number of corporations have scholarships available for their own staff. This includes the Government of Singapore Corporation (GIC) and Temasek Holdings. Potential candidates of these companies should check with their HR Departments.

The Master of Science in Wealth Management programme is one of the approved programmes under FSP supported by the Financial Sector Development Fund (FSDF). The Finance Scholarship Programme (FSP) administered by the Monetary Authority of Singapore was designed to groom a critical mass of specialists in targeted fields such as risk management, quantitative finance and finance.

For more info: http://www.business.smu.edu.sg/MWM/scholarships.asp

Information Session

27 February 2009, Friday, 7.00pm at Seminar Room 2.3, Level 2

Singapore Management University
Lee Kong Chian School of Business
50 Stamford Road
Singapore 178899
Tel: +65 6828 0281

If you wish to attend any of the above sessions, please click here to register


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Introduction to Trading FX Futures and Options

Topics covered:

* Getting started trading FX Futures
* Why trade FX? Why trade CME FX?
* Overview on mechanics of trading FX Futures and Options
* FX Market Structure
* Trading CME FX Options
* Q & A Session

K.C. Lam was appointed Head of FX, Asia for CME Group in November 2007. He is responsible for helping to execute CME Group's Asian FX business strategy including increasing trading volume and distribution of FX futures and options on CME Globex®, the exchange's electronic trading platform, further diversifying the company's customer base and building product awareness across the region.

Venue:
10 Eunos Road 8, Singapore Post Centre Theatrette @ Level 5
Opposite Paya Lebar MRT station

This seminar is completely FREE, but space is limited. To reserve your seat, you must have an active account or submit the account Application forms on the evening of the event. BONUS - Fund your account on the night with over SGD$3000 and receive a FREE Gift. If you have any questions about this event, please email info@optionsxpress.com.sg


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Every Singaporean is lossing $27k

According to the recent reports that GIC losses $50 billion and Temasek losses $58 billion, these translate to SGD $100 billion loss! Out of curiosity, I check out how much population we have at SG Gov Stat, during 2008, we have 4839k resident, or 3642k Singaporean + PR.

So I do a simple calculations ($100 billlion, too many zeros, let me know if I calculate wrongly):

Every resident (include foreigners at Singapore):
$100 000 000 000 / 4,839,400 = $20,663

Every Singaporean + PR:
$100 000 000 000 / 3,642,700 = $27,452

Each of us is lossing $27,452. I mean if the government distribute that money out, each of us can get $27k. That is more than the annual pay of many! Amazing. I hope I calculate wrongly. Am I?


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The Science and Art of Impression Management

Having the expertise in the technical aspect of our vocation is indispensable. Yet, in our times, it is just as important to convey the right impression. Our customers, colleagues, employees and business associates form opinions of us based on the impression we create in their minds. Many are not aware of the power of such impression. What do others in fact think of us? How do we know? When we form a judgment of what others think of us, are we likely to be right?

People believe that they convey highly consistent impressions to the various people with whom they interact. This is not so most of the times. We want to be in much better control of such impressions we create in others. Our effectiveness at work and business depend on it to a large extent. This course aims to shed good light over this essential art of impression management. You will learn good self-presentation, assertiveness and other effective psychological skills and techniques to greatly enhance your work with people.

Course Objectives:
• To impart participants with psychological insights on the importance of effective self-presentation.
• To equip participants with effective techniques and skills to enhance interpersonal impression management.
• To strengthen participants’ capability in communicating assertively and persuasively for maximum outcomes with people at work.

Registration:
Run1 - 16 to 17 March 2009 ► Register for this run
Run2 - 1 to 2 June 2009 ► Register for this run
Time: 9.00am - 5.00pm
Venue: NTU@one-north campus, Executive Centre
Fee: Standard: SGD$590.00 NTU Alumni: SGD$472.00 Group (3 & above): SGD$531.00



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How much can bankers earn?

With the recent financial crisis, I think many of us are suffering, even many more being retrenched and pay cut. However, do you notice that, most pay cut and retrenchment are from manufacturing, electronic firms, or car makers (in the case of oversea). Compared to bank, the retrenchment is not that bad in the case of Singapore. Surprisingly, those top bankers still getting huge bonus and salary. So lets see how much they are earning....

According to Bankers say sorry, top UK bankers are earning huge, even that amount is in SGD (not pound), is very good enough.

RBS
Sir Tom McKillop Chairman £750,000
Sir Fred Goodwin Group chief executive £4,190,000
Johnny Cameron Chairman, global markets £3,256,000

Northern Rock
Matt Ridley Chairman £223,000
Adam Applegarth Chief executive £785,000
David Baker Deputy chief executive £476,000

If you think that is just top 3 persons in a bank, how about Merrill Lynch made 700 millionairs:

- The top 4 bonus recipients received a combined $121 million
- The next 4 received a combined $62 million
- Overall, the top 149 people who got bonuses received a combined $858 million
- And 696 people got bonuses of $1 million or more.

If you still think those cases are too far away from us, but how about the salary of this
Heartless Singapore Guy?

2004 SG Bank : SGD $7,000
2007 HK Bank : HK $130,000 (SGD $26,000 equivalent)

I think this guy is a typical salary of a traders in bank.

So the moral of the story:
1) Let your kids go for financial field.
2) Change to financial field if you still young to study.
2) Never let your girlfriend know your salary, if not she will tell everyone!


Click here for more salary information on Financial

SGX Investment seminars & courses

Master the Markets and Navigate it Like a Pro. Let SGX courses and seminars guide you through market complexities. Visit http://www.sgxacademy.com/ or call 6327 5438 for details and registration.

Professional Trader Training Programme (New!):
For those who aspire to become professional traders and desire to acquire in-depth trading skills. The robust curriculum is combined with training and mentorship from SGX-certified professional trainers:

* Trading Analysis for Professional Traders (courses available from 14 February 2009)
* Advanced Technical Analysis with Interactive Trading and Professional Mentoring (courses available from 21 February 2009)

Investor Education:

Seminars:
* 21 February 2009 - A Guide to Value Investing
* 28 February 2009 - A Guide to Financial Statements

Courses:
* 16, 20, 23, 27 February 2009 - Analysing the Stock Market with Technical Analysis, Part 1 (Mandarin)
* 22 February 2009 (full day) - Effective Market & Warrant Trading Using Technical Analysis
* 3, 5, 10, 12 March 2009 - Analysing the Stock Market with Technical Analysis Part 2 (Mandarin)


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Is it worth to study world's most expensive universities?

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the cost of obtaining a U.S. degree is among the highest in the world and rising. NUS of Singapore is considered as one of the expensive university in the world too. So lets take a look at the statistic and what are the conclusions.

Top 5 most expensive in terms of tuition and fees for the 2008-2009 school year:
1. Washington, D.C.'s George Washington University ($40,437)
2. Ohio’s Sarah Lawrence College ($40,350)
3. Pennsylvania's Kenyon College ($40,240)
4. New York's Vassar College ($40,210)
5. New York's Bucknell University ($36,652)

Over the world (in U.S. dollars)
1. Imperial College London ($27,800)
2. National University of Singapore ($24,000)
3. Canada's Quest University ($20,500)

What about the elite institutions, like Harvard and Yale? They're in the same range - $36,173 for Harvard, $35,300 for Yale - but not quite as pricey as many smaller private schools. Factor in cost of living, books, transportation and other expenses and they're about the same as the U.S. schools listed above.

Globally, the average cost of a public education in the U.S. ($4,587) was second only to Australia ($5,289) in 2003-2004, the years surveyed for the study. For private education, the U.S. schools have the highest average price tags.

As conclusions:

1) If you're paying more than $45,000 for a college education, you're attending one of the world's most expensive universities.

2) Paying top dollar gets you a good education, but there are always attractive and far cheaper publicly funded alternatives available.

Source: IHT, Forbes 1, Forbes 2.


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You'll Jobless Immediately if You Join Them

Look at this hiring notice, I can assure that you will be jobless soon if you join them. So maybe if you just look for some part time or short term assignment, then maybe this is a good choice, or maybe you don't have much choice. I believe this the scenario at US now with 598,000 jobs lost in January, the biggest for any single month since 1974, driving the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent. More than 11.6 million Americans are now unemployed.

The strange part is the stock market rallied on last Fri, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising more than 200 points, as investors looked forward to Monday's expected announcement on President Obama's plan for resuscitating the nation's banks and easing the housing crisis.

Companies in nearly every sector of the economy have cut jobs or announced that they would take other steps to save on costs, including freezing or reducing pay or eliminating contributions to employee retirement programs. If the jobless rate keeps rising at the pace it has for the past two months, it will hit double digits in summer and reach its highest rate since the Great Depression by the fall.

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Business Finance For Engineers

In this knowledge-based economy, it is no longer sufficient to be proficient in one professional specialisation alone. Whatever the shape and size of a business, they all have one thing in common, i.e., they hope to make money. A major factor in determining success is the ability of management to control its finance. The objective of this short course is to demystify the process of business finance and to help the participants to turn their business from a potential casualty of the ‘death valley curve’ into an efficient and profit-making success story.

The course has been designed for the understanding of the framework which enables managers and professionals to focus on the business financial skills they need to develop. The short course also serves as a reference point and source of ideas and information through which the participants can practise learning needs and identify appropriate activities.

Run1 - 5 to 6 March 2009 ► Register for this run
Run2 - 4 to 5 June 2009 ► Register for this run
Time: 9.00am - 5.00pm
Venue: NTU@one-north campus, Executive Centre
Fee: Standard: SGD$590.00 NTU Alumni: SGD$472.00 Group (3 & above): SGD$531.00


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150 Engineers + 350 Operators to be retrenched, 500 jobless added to the existing 73,100

An electronic semiconductor company is going to retrench 150 Engineers (and level above) together with 350 operators. According to the source, everyone is panic as the name list is not out yet, very likely to be annouced within this week. It is also not know if the plant will have further shut down.

In earlier CNA news says that Singapore’s unemployment rate in the last quarter of 2008 rose to a seasonally adjusted 2.6 per cent, up from 2.2 per cent in the third quarter on rising retrenchments with slowing employment growth and a weaker economy. According to official data from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released Friday, about 73,100 Singapore residents were jobless in December, a steep 58 per cent jump year-on-year. For the whole of 2008, the overall unemployment rate averaged 2.3 per cent (62,900 residents), up from a year ago which was 2.1 per cent (56,700 residents). This is the first time the annual average unemployment rate has increased since 2003, when it peaked at 4.0 per cent.

Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong has said the unemployment rate due to the current recession in Singapore could reach the levels recorded during the Asian financial crisis in 1998 and the economic downturn in 2001.

Another related layoff in semiconductor firm is Chartered Semiconductor announces Q4 loss, cuts 540 jobs in Singapore.


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Asian Boss VS Western Boss

Do you have an Asian Boss? Or you have a Western Boss? If you never have a Western Boss, then you may not notice the difference. But this girl, she got an exciting interview experience between Asian and Wester boss. I think it is worth to post it here for everyone to read.

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I am female who work in Network field as well. For the wages, i think sometimes it really depends on how well you demonstrate/ sell yourself during the stage of the interview and the overall impression that you gv to interviewers.

I am holding first class honor degree and distinction for my master degree from UK by age 24. Most of the interviews that I have done with typical Asian bosses were general awful...I figured that they felt threaten by my qualifications and even told me something like " If I train you up, I don't think you are going to stay long"..Now I work with MNC and I landed this job after 3 round interviews. I met 2 asian bosses during my second interview. They told me straight that they didn''t have intention to train fresh grad. But after 3 months, i contacted by HR for 3rd interview. HR informed me that the bosses from USA are coming to interview me after they review my resume as they plan to set up a new team here. So I got the job at the end. I told my bosses (Americans) straight that I don't have any technical experiences in IT field. They assure me that they do train fresh grad (see..the difference? Asian bosses mostly selfish).I have been trained for 1 and half month before they put me into the real post. Sometimes timing and luck play important roles.

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Apparently, there is a huge difference, maybe due to different education background and hence different thinking.


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Art of Saying No to Customers Without Offending Them

"No" always hurt.. Want to say "No" without hurting others? This course may help you..

Upon completion of the workshop, participants will be able:
1. To learn to say “no” to a customer when necessary while maintaining the relationship with the customer
2. To better understand customer expectations and how they impact the level of service customers feel they have received
3. To enhance customer engagement through choice of more customer-focussed language, tone of voice, and listening skills
4. To learn how to better manage and turn-around upset customers and difficult situations

Methodology
Aside from course notes, the workshop will involve participants in discussions, learning by action and application, self- and group evaluations, and self-improvement goal-setting and action-taking for participant follow-up after completing the workshop.

Run1 - 2 March 2009 ► Register for this run
Run2 - 27 May 2009 ► Register for this run
Time: 9.00am - 5.00pm
Venue: NTU@one-north campus, Executive Centre
Fee: Standard: SGD$350.00 NTU Alumni: SGD$280.00 Group (3 & above): SGD$315.00


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