He added that the Manpower Ministry (MOM) will soon announce measures to help existing and laid-off workers afford retraining programmes.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that the world economy will grow at about 2 per cent next year - more than half that of last year’s and worse than the growth levels in the last financial crisis in the late 1990s.

Twice-retrenched Roger Soh first lost his job in 1998 and had found it hard to find re-employment. Even his last job as a relocation consultant fell through when fewer expatriates were sent to Singapore.

The 53-year-old former forex trader is now an administrator at the Singapore Professionals and Executives Co-operative, earning one-eighth of his previous salary.

"I was looking for a job based on my experience and my background, but the job market is really tough. I’ve come to a point where I think I should change my mindset if something comes along. It’s good to just take the job and see how it goes from there," Mr Soh said.

West Coast GRC MP Ho Geok Choo, who started the Singapore Professionals and Executives Co-operative in 2000 to help PMEBs find gainful employment, sees opportunities for this group of workers in the current crisis.

"We are going to see the emergence of what I call ’the freelance economy’, made up of consultants, made up of sub-contractors, made up of outsource agents," said Ms Ho.

Apart from venturing into freelancing, Mr Lim said tripartite partners are ready to ramp up their existing Employment and Employability Programme, including one that helps executives re-skill for a new industry.

"If he or she is prepared to go for retraining, prepared to adapt to a new working environment, there’s still hope for our retrenched workers to go back to the job market again.

"As we go through the recession, a growing number of workers will have to adapt themselves and maybe take on a different job with different pay," said Mr Lim.

The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) is working with the DBS Staff Union to help its retrenched staff find jobs through retraining. DBS recently announced that it would cut 900 jobs by the end of this month.

As for concerns about CPF cuts - a social security scheme to keep business costs down - Mr Lim said for now, this would likely not be implemented.

"Any talk about CPF cuts at this moment is way too premature because there are 1001 things we can do to prepare ourselves, to strengthen ourselves to ride through this crisis," he said.

Mr Lim also assured workers that tripartite partners will not be looking for easy solutions for companies, which may be painful for workers. — CNA/so

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