While official employment figures for the first quarter of this year have yet to be released, Manpower Minister Mr Gan Kim Yong has announced that the unemployment rate will be higher than that of 2008's last quarter.
The Ministry of Manpower has observed more retrenchment notices, and plans to tackle the situation with various schemes like the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) and the Jobs Credit Scheme. In particular, Mr Gan believes that SPUR has been very successful in the past four months, pointing out that it has helped to reduce the number of retrenched workers for many companies.
Nevertheless, Mr Gan urges Singaporeans to prepare themselves for another few quarters of downturn, and acknowledges that restructuring and retrenchments are unavoidable in some cases.
On the other hand, some analysts are predicting that the recession may bottom out by the end of the year. Mr Adrian Cooper, managing director of British firm Oxford Economics, expects the global economy to grow by 2.2% next year, given the numerous government bailouts of late.
Closer to home, he has tipped Singapore to grow by 4.8% next year, as compared to this year's predicted contraction of 7.2%.