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Sad to watch this video about the reality young people in China are facing

Unemployment rate for over-30s creeps up This group of job-seekers runs the risk of skills obsolescence, says Manpower Minister 04:45 AM Jun 16, 2012 by Sara Grosse SINGAPORE - As Singapore's labour market shows signs of softening, Minister of State for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin yesterday flagged an area of concern: The long-term unemployment rate, while still low, has crept up over the year for residents aged 30 and over. For residents aged 30 to 39, the figure rose from 0.3 per cent to 0.4 per cent, while for mature residents aged 40 and over, the figure rose from 0.7 per cent to 0.8 per cent. "This group of job-seekers remains unemployed and is still unable to secure a new job after an extended period of time," wrote Mr Tan on The Manpower Blog. "Thus, skills obsolescence could potentially set in." He gave assurance that the Government will work closely with the Singapore Workforce Development Agency to help these job-seekers with training and finding new jobs. The report released yesterday showed that job creation had slowed in the first three months of the year with 27,200 jobs created, down from 28,300 a year ago. Unemployment rose slightly to 2.1 per cent in March from 2.0 per cent last December, while the number of job vacancies fell by 5.1 per cent over the year to 46,800 in March. Inflation continued to weigh down on wages, with real average monthly earnings falling by 3.9 per cent in the first quarter from last year, following a 1.4-per-cent drop in the fourth quarter of last year. Recruiters told Channel NewsAsia that they were concerned about Singapore's labour productivity, which fell by 2.2 per cent in the first quarter after declining by 0.5 per cent in the previous quarter. Some, like Randstad Regional Director Karin Clarke, said it suggests that firms are not improving their productivity despite challenges in finding the right talent. As for the dip in employment rate, Association of Small and Medium Enterprises President Chan Chong Beng said: "That small increase in the unemployment rate could possibly be offset later on by the cutting-down of the dependency ratio ceiling." Meanwhile, 2,600 workers were made redundant in the first quarter of this year, down from 3,250 in last year's fourth quarter. URL http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC12...r-30s-creeps-up Copyright 2012 MediaCorp Pte Ltd | All Rights Reserved

Looks like we have not done enough to help the students who are entering the working industry if there is even a barrier to the job fair by ntu. I supposed need to be careful of how the economy and changing landscape will affect the employability of the next generation. Having say that, it a dual edged. Wouldn’t it be best to or even rightfully so that the students who are not invited knows the truth that they are not wanted by this industry and should not waste their time, hope and dreams as well as disappointment?.

Great website to get insight into our Singapore situation. http://stats.mom.gov.sg/Pages/Home.aspx Not sure if they re tweak the stats to show unemployment as they consider those that takes more then 6 months to find job considered not looking for job.

Engulfed by recession and high unemployment rate, Spain's new car sale for 2012 has plunged by 13.2%. According to Spanish car makers' association ANFAC, it was a dismal December when new car sales plunged 23% from a year ago, which led to this steep annual decline last year with little expectation of improvement in 2013. This is the lowest level ever recorded since data collection began in 1989. A similar situation is affecting France as well, where new car registrations hit a 15-year low in 2012. ANFAC commented that the figures could have been worse if not for a new car subsidy scheme introduced by the government on 1 October 2012 in an attempt to offset the effect of a 3% hike in value added tax that was introduced in September 2012. Most economists expect the Spanish unemployment rate to remain above 25% in 2013 and its economy to endure another year of recession. Spain, which is the Eurozone's fourth-largest economy, has been hit particularly hard by the collapse of the country's housing market, which forced the government to bail out the Spanish banking sector with assistance from the EU.

I am quite shocked how high it is... we complain a lot about singapore but imagine 1 in 4 people are out of jobs... Spain is not small right? One of the reason given by a lot of articles is that the spain property bubble burst in 2008... I hope singapore don't suffer the same fate.... For young people entering the job market, it is like 40% unemployment.... crazy.

Click here http://www.npr.org/2012/04/04/149927290/th...th-unemployment

HK labour unions slam minimum wage as too low Hong Kong yesterday set the city's first minimum wage at HK$28 (S$4.54) an hour, angering labour groups which criticised it as too low to make ends meet in the glitzy financial hub. The government is aiming to usher in the base wage from next May - lower than the HK$33 demanded by labour activists. The densely populated city of seven million is also home to hundreds of thousands of workers who live on hourly wages sometimes as low as HK$15 ah hour. Concern about Hong Kong's growing income gap - which the UN Development Programme last year pegged as the world's biggest among wealthy economies - prompted the government to introduce the wage floor. - AFP taken off the new paper 111110 our govt has always said that minimum wage will induce unemployment, now HK unions are pressing for a higher minimum wage soon HK economy will crumble and will trigger yet another ression! OMG!