Sunny 2008 for jobs

135,000 jobs to be created in 2008, wages to go up by 5.1%: economists

Economists at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) are forecasting that 135,000 jobs will be created next year. That is less than the estimated 200,000 for this year but it will still be the fourth straight year that jobs growth has come in above 100,000. Overall, economists at NTU are optimistic about the economic outlook for 2008. They expect job creation to remain strong with some 135,000 new positions. This will see the unemployment rate dropping to 2%, down from 2.3% currently. Wage increases are forecast to go up a lower 5.1%, compared to 8.1% this year. Economists said the flexibility of Singapore's foreign worker policy will keep a lid on wage pressures.


This huge employment increase that we've seen in the last 2 or 3 years will have spillover effect over the coming years. The second factor is productivity increases. We expect to see fairly good productivity improvements over the coming quarters." "And they are already beginning to show. There has been an improvement in productivity levels. These two factors will mean that while there are a lot more job openings. These jobs openings can basically be filled ultimately." Meanwhile, higher inflation is also expected to persist into the first half of 2008. "Inflation will go up for another half year or so mainly because of the one-time effect of the GST rate increase.



It (Inflation) will sort of taper off in the second half of next year, but we don't really see it coming down very much simply because when you have robust growth this year and next, cost pressures build up. Wages have been going up and eventually it'll translate into a higher rate, so we still predict that inflation next year is going to be above 2 percent," said NTU's Assistant Professor Choy Keen Meng. The overall economy is forecast to grow by 7.5% next year, with faster growth expected in manufacturing, transport and storage and information and communication sectors. NTU economists are expecting the growth in construction and financial services sectors to be slightly slower next year, but they said the figures will still be healthy at 14% for construction and 11% for financial services. -

Listen Without Prejudice

Although the world has moved a big step forward, there are still a lot of discrimination in women rights, salaries and jobs. A lot of the less developed and conservative countries are still oppressing females and feminism, limiting their freedom in what they wear, speech, education and work.

Discrimination is part of our human nature and is caused by many different reasons.

First, we like to make comparison among different people; we like to compare our merits with other demerits, this is a sign of ego and conceit.

Second, we are discriminating ourselves for having less than other people have; this is a sign of inferiority.

Third, we are discriminating against someone who has poor attitude, rudeness and poor manner; this is a sign of righteousness.

Fourth, some people think light skin color is better than dark skin color, men are better than women are, and these are signs of pride and prejudice.

Fifth, race is discriminating against other races, religion is discriminating against other religions, and these are signs of selfishness, self-center, hate and evil. Every religion was built from love, peace and forgiving. Each bible came from the hands of the holy men, or the great apostles, written with wisdom, and enlightenment of the universe, creator and mankind.

Every rule and teaching is to amend our demerits and refine our personality, there shouldn't be any pride, prejudice, brutality and conceit. What are causing all the disputes are our heart, stubbornness, conceit and the way we interpreted different bibles? Our selfishness tells us we are the best and the only true religion, and the rest are all evil. Our criticism is triggering rebellion and anger, our preaching becomes betraying, and our wishes for getting more support and acknowledgement earns more hate and revenge. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, revenge, wars, killing and riot are only delighting the devil and upsetting our Lord(s). When can we give up our anger and feuds, and start accepting each other and holding hands together?Almost every bible has said, "I am the only God", "I am the one and only one", "Do not bow down to any idol or worship it", etc. I totally agreed with these, but my angle and point of view are slightly different.

The reasons why Jesus Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius and Lao-Zi established their religions were to teach us their enlightenment, the rules of the universe, philosophy, self-improvement and self-introspection. But we don't follow them as teachers, we only follow their magical power, to protect us and fulfil our wishes.We always pray for good health, wealth, fortune, peace on earth and trouble-free. We want our life cozy and comfortable, without any difficulty, accident, pain and dispute to train our spirit and lift our personality.

Religions become a place for protection and a place to meet new friends. We only follow those easy rules, to go to church or confess to the priests again and again about the same sins every week. We never really follow their paths, correcting our demerits, forgiving others, and love your enemies. If we are following them as teachers, then following either or all of them really make no difference. We can learn the thinking "Not ashamed to ask", and "Everyone can teach" from Confucius, love and forgive from Jesus Christ, ecological balance and cycle of the whole universe from Buddha, the spirit of sacrifice from Mohammed, and the yin, yang and eight diagrams from Taoism.

Isn't today's science based on and proving these theories?The true meaning of "Do not bow down to any idol or worship it", indicating that we should switch from wishing to learning, from asking to paying, from seeking protection to taking challenge, from laziness to enthusiasm, from demerits to merits.

This is not a religious homepage, and I am not trying to sell the belief of any religion. If you are in one of the major religions, congratulation, you are on the right track already, and you don't need to go anywhere else, all you need to do is to amend your selfish, superstitious and biased point of views and attitude toward your religion, Gods or other religions. Period....